Episode 51: All the small things...

Adrian takes the mic as first player and celebrates all those little things in board gaming when the publishers get it right.  The players around the table recall those little things which make a big difference

FIRST PLAYER: Adrian
OTHER PLAYERS: Dan, Becky & Kerley

OVERVIEW
In this episode you'll learn:
- Becky just can't get enough of Ark Nova on BGA and can now give Kerley a kicking every now and then
- Dan's getting his kids into board gaming with Ticket to Ride First Journey by Days of Wonder
- whether sheep are better than cows in the latest Great Western Tail New Zealand by Eggertspiele
- more about Adrian's flip & write journeys in Next Station: Tokyo
- more about the players round robin experiences of those small things that publishers do which brings a smile to board gamers faces.

LINKS REFERENCED IN THE SHOW
N/A

EPISODE CHAPTERS
0:00 - TURN 1 - Player Count
4:19 - TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
4:34 - Becky - Ark Nova on BGA & Opening Dog Park New Tricks
6:05 - Dan - Ticket to Ride First Journey
9:35 - Kerley - Great Western Trail New Zealand
15:24 - Adrian - Next Station Tokyo
19:29 - TURN 3 - Main Event: All the small things...
20:00 - It's a Wonderful World's turn counter
23:24 - Publisher inserts that are actually quite good
28:10 - The player trays in Eclipse Second Dawn
30:41 - When animeeples really elevated Agricola
35:09 - The textured feel of Wingspan's rulebook
38:54 - The squidgy berries and resources in Everdell
41:48 - When games don't just pick standard player colours
46:07 - Transparent cards in Fallout Shelter & Canvas
48:23 - The rubber hats in Viticulture World
50:36 - Adding that second layer to player boards
57:17 - Creating randomness through inventive dice towers
1:01:06 - TURN 4 - Would you rather play a game which was slightly too small or slightly too big
1:05:12 - TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up
1:05:25 - Dan - Terraforming Mars
1:05:52 - Kerley - Kerley - Heroes of Might & Magic III & Anunnaki: Dawn of the Gods
1:07:28 - Becky - JP's Birthday Games Day
1:09:15 - Adrian - Trying an upgraded 3D printer & creating inserts
1:12:27 - TURN 6 - The Final Turn

Transcript

TURN 1 - Player Count
0:00
the who's turn is it Anyway podcast is live this year at the UK games Expo you can check us out on Friday the 31st of
0:07
May at half 1 to half 2 in the dice room which is in pza 4 if you want to get
0:13
involved in the live episode then please come along we can't wait to see you there [Music] [Applause]
0:19
[Music]
0:25
[Music]
0:32
hello and welcome to whose turn is anyway a podcast all about our board gaming group and the board games that we play my name is Adrian I am your first
0:39
player and today I have other players with me always I know they're here on
0:45
this show first of all watching waiting but not commiserating we have Becky hi
0:51
Say It Ain't So I will not go and I'm certainly not carrying him home it's Dan I wouldn't carry me home either and the
0:57
one who always leaves me Roses by the STS because surprises let me know he cares it's curly
1:03
curlington I would as well yeah I know you I know you do it's lovely let's look after you in case in
1:11
case you haven't figured out from that terrible intro we are talking about All the Small Things little things in board games that just make them a delight to
1:19
play or really Elevate them above what just a basic like plain standard looking board game would do so before we get
1:26
into that though how is everyone doing fabulous I'm on annual leave so I am
1:32
cking thank you very much what have you got planned uh went to London yesterday with my friend went to see a play which
1:38
was nice I've been doing lots of house chores that I've been kind of you know sitting around for a long time um
1:46
playing games on BGA actually quite a lot yeah yeah that's been cool Happy Days good curly I'm absolutely exhausted
1:53
I'm really
1:58
ready I just was expected you come out with that drop that one
2:07
[ __ ] oh God I hate doing pods for you D you're a nightmare so why are you
2:12
feeling so [Applause] tired so I'm I'm just knacking from work
2:18
I've got I'm really ready for a week off I've got next week off and I'm really looking forward to it it's basically what I was going to lean into before Dan
2:24
so rudely interrupted me but you know I'm used to it being treated so badly from Young Dan absy it's all right Dan
2:30
you take over that's right I will how are you doing cuz that's all you know seem I'm really good about the sound of
2:37
it significantly better than you I'm really good really good and that's maybe only comparison as to how
2:43
you were last week last week I was a little bit worse for where I was a little bit wobbly um you weren't a little bit wobbly mate you were you were
2:50
on your ass beex you were the only person that got to see me how lucky you were I was a little bit poly poly but
2:57
I'm all right now I'm good now and I can now talk cuz last week I couldn't talk um and it was crazy don't ever get your
3:03
throat drained thank you very much love you NHS um well I I too was not
3:09
particularly well but it did allow me to basically watch the first three seasons of Lucifer which I keep telling myself I
3:15
want to watch that in order whereas normally I just catch the odd episode and so I've watched it in order and it
3:20
was really good until the fact that the last part of season three is where the Network dropped it so
3:28
they're just about to do like the final episode or they're clearly about to line up something and then you get these two
3:34
random episodes which is where they' recorded some stuff that hadn't made the usual sort of shtick and they just put
3:40
it on the end cuz they're like oh this show is being canceled you might as well have these two three episodes that make no sense don't line up or anything and
3:46
then season 4 comes in and they have to do this bit oh yes after this happened this person did this and that person did
3:51
this and this person did that and trying to tie it all up and it's really odd but been enjoying it it's good my mom used
3:57
to say that you looked like Lucifer thanks she meant she meant the character not the devil just to make that clear in
4:04
your demon face don't know how to feel about that he look he looks like Curly that guy I
4:09
well I can see where you're going with it he's a handsome guy I take that means handsome BL to be fair Tom Ellis is a damn sight Slimmer and better looking
4:15
than me so I'll take it I will absolutely take that no problem at
TURN 2 - Let's Talk About Hex
4:26
all in our next section we will talk about you and and me and talk about all the good things and the bad things that
4:32
have been as we talk about hex so Becky what have you been up to recently uh I have been playing lots of BGA and
Becky - Ark Nova on BGA & Opening Dog Park New Tricks
4:40
winning some which is always good but yeah playing randoms at ARC NOA which was
4:46
cool which was a good learning experience I think playing a different kind of style against the people I'm
4:51
normally used to playing against IE curly to be hon youve learned how to beat curly well I beat him once like
4:56
maybe what like I don't know is it two weeks ago something yeah but you know I'll take it I'll take that but what I'm
5:03
really excited to talk about is I received dog park New Tricks today very
5:09
day yeah and I unboxed it and pop all the bits out and you know CU you have played the original dog now haven't you
5:15
I could remember whether youd actually played it or not yeah yeah and it looks really good I'm really excited for shame
5:21
nice yeah need to get it played but it does look great it's very cute it's very simple I would say but I think this adds
5:27
another sort of mechanic by the looks of it um and all the pieces are very nice as as you would expect and there's like
5:34
cross breeds of dog which looks quite cute and um rescue dogs in there which is very sweet and one of the special
5:40
pieces is a dog with like Wheels instead of back legs a yeah that's my favorite
5:46
piece in it but it's very cute is that a card or a component no it's a component is it yeah you know how you've got your
5:52
dog walker components and your dogs yeah yeah oh I love that the dogs's got little wheels oh more things see wen't
5:58
we a good pant my audience totally you you Ard in just the
6:04
right places Dan what about yourself oh so today I played um Ticket to Ride first
Dan - Ticket to Ride First Journey
6:10
journey with my two little ones nice it's not often I get a chance to play much with them I've got an 8-year-old
6:16
and a six-year-old the 8-year-old my daughter she's very kind of invested in wanting to play more games with Daddy
6:22
which is really really nice she said sweet yeah she said today she said oh I really like playing games with you Daddy which was really nice it's kind of like
6:28
laying down the foundation of hopefully what's to come in the future while my son he's not quite there yet he's only
6:35
six so he his his level of understanding is not quite there but we play Ticket to Ride first journey I mean if anyone's
6:40
played Ticket to Ride it's the same thing the first journey but rather than you um kind of going for as many kind of
6:46
roots as you can you're kind of claiming only six uh and then you win and OB the the roots are much smaller and also if
6:53
you manage to claim a route from one left hand side of the board to the right hand side of the board or vice versa you also get like a bonus route and it's and
6:59
it's first to six it's nice and easy and um you know great for great for kids great for kids and it's it's nice and
7:05
colorful and it's it's not it's nothing too taxing it's like tickets to ride but on a much much lower scale it's nice
7:11
sounds good and Ticket to Ride is not the most complex game in the first place
7:16
no so is your 8-year-old at the point of being able to sort of step up soon do you think for maybe a first steps game
7:23
or my first game to something like that or I think so yeah yeah I think I've been sort of thinking about what I could
7:30
probably teach her as a first kind of stepup game I watched her today and I watched her play Ticket to Ride first
7:36
journey with with my son and I watched her help him that's there's not that much difference between the two age gaps
7:41
not really it's less than two years but you you can see her helping him which is really really nice uh and I can and
7:47
she's there she's doing everything all by herself I don't have to Aid her in any in any of the any of the the
7:52
mechanics of the game she's she's I told her how it works she's working it all out which is really really nice uh and
7:58
she doesn't need my help so I'm thinking you know what is the next kind of game I can kind of put in front of her there's
8:03
not nothing that's too overbearing wingspan too much yeah but something like maybe like namiji which is the the
8:10
um spiritual successor to tokaido which is easier than tokaido I may go down that road um what about quacks quacks we
8:18
do play quacks and Co which uh which is which is the junior version of quacks of quinber um but yes quacks of quid would
8:25
also be another good alternative no it's interesting to see that it's kind of probably at the lower level youry old
8:31
but bang on 36y old is that kind of qu yeah qu and Co definitely is um I think
8:36
I think for tickets to ride first journey I think my my son the six-year-old he's just grasped it right
8:42
while for my eldest she's probably gone I've got this now I'm quite comfortable but I probably could stomach a little
8:48
bit more maybe a little bit more we'll see what I'm looking forward to watching this space and see how the journey develops with really yeah it's
8:54
interesting we don't really get chance to talk about games like that very often in these on these podcasts so always
8:59
nice to see that you see quite a few of those kind of my first games out there there's like side and uh was there Katan
9:06
I can't remember if there was Katan there's there's been a few of those kind of like like quacks and Co so it's
9:11
interesting to see that they are doing what they're kind of intended to do beyond the kind of the harbor kind of
9:17
games which which which have their purpose and serve their place um but I also think that these my first games do
9:23
also serve their place as well and um um you see like you know when you go to like places like the UK games Expo you
9:28
see family areas signed up just there to play these types of games there's definitely a market for it definitely a place for it I'm all for it nice yeah
Kerley - Great Western Trail New Zealand
9:35
good curly yeah so what have I been up to so we played Great Western Trail the other day um the New Zealand version
9:42
which um I've got Great Western Trail the second edition which improved art and a few other little balance changes
9:48
they did but I was interested to give New Zealand a try um and I have to say I was really impressed um they've kind of
9:56
Taken uh rails to the north if anyone play the expansion to that kind of I
10:01
guess tidied that up a little bit um but really uh changed the theme of it a little bit so instead of rails to the
10:07
north you you're going around in a little boat um but it's a similar kind of mechanic you you're visiting the different places to unlock new places to
10:14
go and yeah just uh yeah really interesting mechanics in that but they also had things like um uh the ability
10:21
to Shear your sheep which uh you know it's a different strategy to go down fur you don't have to do it but I think if
10:26
you do a little bit of that and a little bit of the normal way just selling sheep like you did um the cattle in the
10:33
original great w no not very well I imagine you could some of them but you know they might
10:38
kick you I guess um but no yeah just really good fun really interesting mechanics um I think it adds to the
10:46
complexity quite a bit um I was saying to JP and Adrian actually that I think
10:51
to teach that to some new people would be actually very tricky um I think we take for granted cuz we know the
10:57
original game quite well it was quite an easy step up but without knowing that I think I'd have found that quite a lot in
11:03
one go so I think it's probably a nice little step to play the original game first and then upgrade to that later on
11:09
but you know you could definitely do it for those people who take the games pretty quickly I guess but it is a challenge for sure I would imagine it
11:16
would be quite easy to make a little mistake in it and then for that to feel quite bad for the whole game you know
11:23
just make a little mistake at the start like get the timing a little bit wrong do go too hard into this strategy rather
11:29
than that strategy and then suddenly you feel like everyone else is taking off and you're struggling with it so yeah
11:34
it's one of those games that kind of um I think you you kind of have to write off that first game I know it's always
11:39
easy to say and difficult to do but um yeah super good fun though um some
11:45
really interesting mechanics and I think definitely my favorite version of it but I could see that some people might want
11:50
to stick to the original put it that way um but I don't think I was saying to JP actually that I don't think I want would
11:57
want both they're just a little bit too too similar for me um I think I I'm not
12:03
saying I will sell my Great Western Trail but I don't think I'm going to bother buying the New Zealand one even
12:08
though I think I probably prefer it but tambo's got that I've got the original I think that works for me that is pretty
12:13
much where I'm at as well is that I can see people owning both I can see I've not played Argentina but from what I've
12:20
heard I can see people owning all three but for myself like you I think I actually prefer the New Zealand version
12:26
the the shearing ads extra Dimension I can see ofan to do it suddenly turns it from
12:32
Just CU in the B one your strategy really is around which characters you collecting the most of really isn't it
12:38
it's still got that in New Zealand but then it's got the shearing and the and the the rails to the north style boat
12:45
and all that kind of stuff it adds a lot of extra strategy and that I really enjoyed and I thought this is great and I thought about it and I thought but I
12:52
teach Great Western Trail to new people more than I sort of don't if that makes sense like normally when I'm playing
12:58
Great Western Trail there is a newbie at the table MH and as you said I just I
13:03
would feel really bad teaching it to them if they're not used to that level
13:08
of game whereas I can teach him to Great Western Trail and then I can add RS to the north yeah at a later date and still
13:14
feel like I'm most of the way towards New Zealand yeah I I think you could
13:20
probably make the leap of playing Great Western Trail a couple of times and then just throwing him into New Zealand without rails to the north I think
13:26
that's enough to just it's the overall mechanics and then adding the that on top is the problem but I think if you've
13:32
got one you'd be all right with the second so um but yeah did thoroughly enjoy it I have to say so I'm I'm
13:38
looking to play that again sooner rather than later um but yeah what was the track on the right hand side the with
13:44
the little bird with the king fisher was it the king fisher I can't think now yeah it's got a bird on it I thought
13:50
that was interesting as you go up that you earn one off benefits but then it unlocks like you know you can only put a
13:55
building down in this certain area on the map for those of you who play Great Western if you've got seven on this track or
14:01
whatever it just added an extra little interesting you know route to go down I just felt like you had to you had to
14:08
juggle more balls and you could you could have different strategies to win whereas Great Western Trail I think to
14:15
me kind of feels like it's almost solvable for the most part the original
14:20
I'm not saying that like with a degree of arrogance but like it always seems like the best way to go down it is to
14:26
cattle cattle cattle cattle just get as many as can but any way that you can and I feel like you can go several different
14:33
strategies on uh New Zealand yeah and I don't think I went down that bird track
14:38
at all if I very minimally if I remember correctly from it's quite a while ago now when I played I just remember there
14:43
was some like one-off bonuses on cards or like repeating bonuses on cards that you added in um and I remember trying to
14:50
get quite a few of those and really struggling more than I thought I would to get those into my deck sort of thing
14:55
but yeah no I really enjoyed it as well and I agree with you it's one of those where I think if you have a regular
15:01
group you'll probably tend more towards New Zealand whereas if you are more of a
15:06
teaching people as you go turn up at conventions random players all that kind of thing I do wonder if more people
15:12
would tend towards the bass version I agree with that for that reason is just how easy it is or isn't to teach but I'm
15:19
glad you enjoyed it cuz yeah I had fun and when I saw it go up in the calendar I thought yeah hopefully you guys all as
Adrian - Next Station Tokyo
15:24
well on a similar vein I've recently been um playing quite a bit of next
15:29
Station Tokyo um and solo as well so I've talked about it a few times that I really like
15:35
railroad Inc solo as a rolling right and um we tried next station London at Essen
15:43
and I've played it a couple of other times since um at gridon stuff really enjoyed it and a damaging damage ding
15:51
copy turned up online for next Station Tokyo while I was ordering other stuff thought I'd Chuck it in and see what
15:57
it's like and it has that similar shades of there's just a few extra quirks and
16:03
rules that I it's not that much more of a teacher I probably could quite happily teach next Station Tokyo but I think
16:09
it's one of those where I would recommend London first and then I would say someone well if you get bored of
16:16
that whatever then try Tokyo so for those who don't know sort of next station any either London Tokyo they
16:22
were they both work the same you've got a deck of cards um and four colored pencils you start off with one color
16:29
pencil that relates to a color station that's where you start you flip over a card it has a symbol you have to try and
16:34
draw a line to the like along the pre registered dotted lines that they've got on the the the writing pad and you have
16:42
to link them up and you have to kind of keep you keep turning over cards until you have five of a certain color come out you have to keep linking up stations
16:49
as best as possible and you're trying to there's like little regions you're trying to fill as many of a region in but you're also trying to get across as
16:55
many regions as possible and then in London you're trying to cross the temps as many times as possible in next
17:02
Station Tokyo you are trying to um kind
17:07
of go fill up regions around the edge but you also just there's like a ring um a ring route around it that
17:15
you're kind of trying to get in and out of it makes it difficult to fill in certain spaces you're trying to get in
17:20
and out of it um as well as use this ring road tracks on the map and that's
17:26
and then that's all you do for that round then you pass the pencils round and again you just reshuffle the deck and flip over cards and you're doing
17:32
exactly same but from the new colored station you've got you've done that four times you work out your score and that's
17:37
it nice and it's really nice and simple um flip and right but with the Tokyo there's also the ability that you can go
17:44
along the same line with a different color and it's also asking you to try
17:50
and get as many colors into different stations as possible as well as using this ring Road and it's just got those
17:56
couple more bits and pieces than London um in there which I really enjoy it's a clever little game yeah I've got it yeah
18:03
it's really clever for for flip and rights and the fact that you're using colors rather than just using a standard pencil it's just I quite like it and it
18:10
looks it looks nice when you finished yeah and which is what I love about railroad Inc I enjoy drawing little
18:15
tracks and little roads on railroading whereas yeah qu with these solos I like
18:21
them any game I or solo needs to be set up in less than 30 seconds ideally and
18:26
needs to kind of look Co at the end or gratifying like you might have done something cool with it even if your
18:31
score is not quite your best um and so these kind of rolling rights and flipping rights really fit into that
18:37
feeling I'll buy you a coloring but for Christmas right oh thanks that's right mate buy numbers yeah cool yeah you need
18:43
that happy days I really like um next station London so I am interested to play next Station Tokyo I don't own next
18:49
station London because I don't think it get played in my house yeah cuz I know that Curly doesn't really like that kind of stuff although he did like more Hill
18:55
mows and I am actually excited for you guys to play that I think you'd like I CH oh cool Chris friend of the Pod yes
19:03
no I think you I think you guys will like that but yeah I played next station London on BGA and found that yeah it's
19:10
just as is it quite as good with the different color pencils no I think I do like that little kind of I do like that
19:16
kind of added bit but yeah it's a really good game would recommend it yeah yeah as I say I think you can start with
19:22
Tokyo but I think my recommendation would be just to start with London start with Tokyo and and play with that I think it's just a simpler game right
19:28
onto our main [Music]
TURN 3 - Main Event: All the small things...
19:36
section that brings us to our main section All the Small Things So as I mentioned at the start of the episode
19:42
These are little additions to board games they don't have to be big at all that really Elevate the board game that
19:49
just adds something that you talk about or that you know really just brings the spark of life to a game so just to kind
19:56
of kick us off I will go first and then you guys just chime in as and when so my
It's a Wonderful World's turn counter
20:02
first one is from It's a Wonderful World the board game so and this is the turn
20:08
counter so it's a wonderful world is a drafting game where for the purposes of
20:13
this point all you do is in the first turn you pass all your cards to the left for the second turn you pass all your cards to the right third and fourth go
20:20
back and forwards and when you look at drafting games there's often something that tells you which way you need to
20:25
draft so on Seven Wonders they put it on the back of the cards just a little arrow that tells you which way you need to draft on the turn uh for draft and
20:32
right records it's a turn it's just a um it's a piece of card that you just turn
20:38
back and forwards each turn just to remind you which way you're supposed to be Drafting and it's a wonderful world
20:43
basically does that but it did it in such a cool little way that and my brain for like a full minute just switched off
20:49
as to how this was physically possible so one side of it is purple the other side is green and on the turn counter
20:56
it's purple and green to show you which side up it should be and it's got the two little it's a circle circular token with two little
21:02
arrows on it that sort of point in the direction that you should be drafting now as you turn it over obviously it
21:08
points the other way and if you think about it for more than 10 seconds you'll probably realize that yes that's how
21:14
flipping shapes overgo if you think about I don't know the number seven if you had a piece in your hand you flipped
21:19
over it would now look like a backwards number seven it wouldn't look like a number seven if you just turned it back
21:25
over again sort of thing and that's exactly how this works is the arrows just pointing the other way but in my
21:30
head when I first saw it I was like but when you flip it over the arrows are just going to be pointing in the same direction surely and so for a good whole
21:37
minute I was sat there playing this game and worried more about how fourth dimension breaking this little
21:45
turn and I was like it just can't possibly work I'm desperately trying to show people the game and play it myself
21:51
and talk through it I'm going it just just can't work to the point where when it came to the second round I genuinely
21:57
picked it up and put the pie is like held it in my finger so that as I turned it over I was holding on to the same
22:03
bits so that I could prove that it and of course it does if you think about it for more than a few seconds it does but
22:09
it's very cool way of just reminding you which way you're Drafting and for some reason it just boggled my mind for like
22:16
half a second and now every time I get that game out I just love this little turn counter and it's just it's a very
22:22
simple part that does not affect the game in any way you could have done a thousand different ways of showing this
22:27
turn counter on off but this little as far as I was concerned for a good minute like law defying physics breaking turn
22:34
counter and how it work when you flipped over just had me mesmerized and now it is like my favorite part of the game in
22:40
a game with great art and with great rules and I love the flow of and yet my
22:46
my favorite part of that game is the turn counter that's it that's it wonderful yeah I can't remember it so it
22:51
didn't it didn't play obviously didn't didn't make such a big impact on me obious I thoroughly enjoyed the game but
22:58
remember the tun out specific no and I I don't think many people will have looked at it for more than two seconds but in
23:04
in the time when I was showing off my brain physically couldn't work out how it worked um and so it just stuck with
23:10
me and I was like it's just it's a nice little neat idea that works and is a
23:16
little bit more 3D and a little bit more tactile and does exactly what it needs
23:21
to but it's just that little extra flourish that I really enjoyed about it I was going to say my favorite thing
Publisher inserts that are actually quite good
23:27
that I love in a game is where the designers or maybe they've farmed it off to someone else I don't know has really
23:32
really thought very very cleverly about what inserts they're going to use now you know I'm all about an aftermarket
23:38
upgrade you know folded space I love you but I love it when the people that are
23:44
making the board game have actually sat and thought about how do people use this game how do people use the containers
23:50
we're going to provide or not in some respects things like septamer is a really good example so they kind of the
23:56
way it folds back in the box is in very SP specific layers it goes in in a very specific way and they put a handy little
24:02
map on the you know BMP that they come with the box to tell you how to to put
24:07
it back away and I really like how each thing fits exactly where it should it's
24:13
just really clever and I like the fact that they actually take the time to think how is this going to be used how
24:19
can we make this quick to put away to to actually start the game off and I I really like that I really like it I I
24:25
agree I think there's a lot of companies out there that think about just getting all the components inside
24:31
the insert it's not about set up or take down or does it all make sense where it goes does it make life easier for the player they just think oh I've got 22 of
24:39
these components that are this size I'll just lump them all together and then not
24:44
thinking really about the fact that the player now has to go through and separate them out whereas if you put them in three chunks Age of Wonders is
24:50
another company that I think does a really good job of of of inserts actually working and doing what they
24:55
need to do but I agree is I'm like you I 3D 3D print so many inserts because I
25:01
don't think they're up to scratch but when you when the company gets it right fantastic probably cost some Pence to
25:07
actually I mean it's just like a vacuum packed plastic isn't it so it's not I'm not looking for really high spec boxes
25:14
with lids or anything like that but when you can put the stuff away easily and obviously it's the exact opposite to I
25:20
think it was Great Western Trail that I was popping for you oh that's terrible it you can't even the stuff doesn't fit
25:26
in the Box properly it it's just so infuriating you think did you not give a crap clearly they didn't give a crap I
25:32
think honorable mentioned to Lords of Water Deep there which has got the worst insert of any game I've ever come across
25:37
I think Lords of water deeps inser would be better if its box was actually a proper box and not a half box yeah you
25:43
know it turned up damaged when I ordered it cuz you turn that half box up on its
25:49
side and immediately the half box doesn't really hold anything in place and it all just drops to one end and I
25:55
think if it was an actual proper box it wouldn't be the insert in the world but it wouldn't be terrible it's just I
26:01
think it's the combination of an average insert with a half and half box I just
26:06
remember thinking that the box was about 84 times the size it actually needed to be it was just like such a waste of
26:12
space and I just insane when they do that you get that a lot with like you
26:17
know deck builders or um Zip Zip Portal Games right Portal Games
26:24
I took a big shine to portal games when they kind of first kind of got um a lot of traction in um in the board game uh
26:32
industry where their games were getting a lot of Spotlight and they had Imperial settlers 51st state 51st state has been
26:38
around for a long time you've got it well you yeah I got the master set one before it um but if you look at the if
26:45
you take out the cardboard crap that is the inlay that goes in there where you have to put all your parts in take that
26:51
out and then look at what components are left in the box and how much is Just air
26:56
it drives me nothing that it's like it's just poorly designed poor poorly thought about well SE is a
27:04
work of art just beautiful isn't it well I've actually got one that's very much linked to that and I'm going to cheat a
27:10
little bit and go two Quicky two just because you made me think it I hope I haven't it one of yours Adrian I don't
27:15
think I have but just on the note of inserts I thought although I got to be honest it's on my sale pile this game
27:23
Dominion I love the insert I love the way the cards go in and you just replace it and then they're all in you don't
27:30
like it do you I can see no cuz you can't fit sleeves in it you have to buy the really like sleeves for it it is my
27:37
friends who don't sleeve things think it's the best thing in the world because I sleeve all my cars like
27:43
religiously nearly all of them really yeah W it's um it's borderline addiction at this point you got so far you can't
27:51
you can't stop you committed that far in you can't stop there and unfortunately yeah it just doesn't it then doesn't
27:57
work if it's sleeved because there's not enough space and the width on it isn't quite enough for most standard cards
28:04
well for a non sleever I thought it was really clever way of doing it just keeping everything organized everything together really like that idea when I
The player trays in Eclipse Second Dawn
28:10
first saw it um but the other one which actually I think is pretty much Flawless is the
28:17
eclipse uh insert oh that is good beautiful it's the way that basically
28:22
and shut up and sit down I'm sure anyone who's seen the shut up and sit down review will remember this but they said
28:27
there are 300 and whatever the number was bits in this bit and now I'm going to set up and they just hand out one box
28:32
for each person done and it's like yeah you you can't yeah that's brilliant you
28:38
love I love that so with with just give you guys a bit of context if you haven't seen it everyone's got their own kind of
28:44
vacuum packed box of their own individual color and within that on the top of the box lid itself is actually
28:51
like a Tracker of your resources so it doubles up and inside the Box you open it up and you've got all of your
28:56
different cubes all your different look like lozenges Little Sweets you know everything individual all set up for you
29:02
guys already ready pretty much ready to go literally a minute to set up um that side of it so I just thought that was
29:08
like ingenious borderline kind of you know um yeah really well well lot Becky
29:14
said really well thought out they really thought about what they want to achieve what the players going to use it for um
29:20
yeah so the best insert that I've seen in well whatever actually I think it's definitely up there I think C second
29:26
edition love that the way they've and the way they've managed to there's a say there's a lot of components and actually
29:32
the the box is big but it's suitably big does that make sense because they've had
29:37
to fit everything in there but they've done the best job of getting it down to the smallest volume possible whilst it
29:43
not being ridiculous to have to set up every time yeah absolutely the opposite of TI the opposite of TI yeah yes oh one
29:50
of the ones you mentioned about the um dual Air Board of art Society now that just sold that game to me immediately
29:58
cuz it's got like a felt insert which is the most premium thing ever it's that
30:03
you know that like um flocked like Flock yeah that they put over Plastics to make
30:09
it textured so kind of like how how original yatsi dice tray was sure cuz
30:15
they came like red and it almost like a like a like a felt top yeah probably something something like that then but
30:20
yeah and that's on the inser of art Society between that and the fact that the the Box itself is a layer thing so
30:29
that the pictures that are inside the frames are are deeper just yeah I think
30:34
great I've never seen that before I think that Mighty boards have abs smash out the park with a lot of those little
30:40
lovely bits and pieces and so I've I've got a good list here but let me start let's go let's go back to basics let's
When animeeples really elevated Agricola
30:46
go back to the let's go back to the days um I was there man I was there 50 years
30:52
ago Agricola when it first came out was just circle token
30:59
a a piece of wood was represented by a circle token and a sheep was just a
31:04
white circle token that's all it was back then uh when agria first came out
31:09
and then I think it got to it sort of Third Edition and they said now with Annie meeples and like what what is this
31:18
and then eventually they made a piece of wood that was shaped like a sheep I mean that is you that just that
31:26
small little change is such a significant change when you look at your board your farm board with Agricola
31:33
aesthetically and you look at a stack of little cylindrical tokens that are meant to represent your sheep in a pasture
31:40
versus three or four pieces of wood that actually look like bloody sheep in a
31:45
pasture that makes such a big difference I agree I absolutely but that's what it was like when it first came out you know
31:51
go back to I always joke about is it ports of vessen from The IT Crowd yes uh you know go back to the ports essent era
31:58
as I call it where Euro games were things were just represented by cubes that's all it was it just cubes and you
32:04
still get that now and that's fine um but just these little changes where you're making an anim rather than a
32:10
token like a syal token makes a big difference I think in my world it just looks nicer to the eye yeah yeah I agree
32:18
going back to those those early days it's not really those early days but you know going back to sort of what 10 years
32:23
ago or something looking around probably about 10 15 years yeah I remember when Game of Thrones bought out Mar like
32:28
Circle tokens but they were like marbleized plastic and everyone thought this was the best thing in games ever to
32:35
the point where Fantasy Flight games were selling packs of them individually because they were better than anything
32:41
else on the market basically for little round tokens you think where we're at now with Kickstarter and all that kind
32:47
of stuff and it's just a world away but I do remember and I remember people going crazy over these like little FFG
32:53
um yeah marbleized plastic tokens it's exactly the same it's that you know all takes that little step up of a basic
32:59
component it can make all the difference it's it's it's crazy when you think about it all it is is just either plastic or wood but to put it in the
33:06
right shape or have it marelize as you say those components for the Game of Thrones Edition they fantastic I love it
33:11
I love those components they're chunky and they're marbelized marized it goes
33:18
to one of my other points actually I was going to say screen printed minis yeah like I didn't realize that that made
33:24
such a difference until when I'm hking back to dog park and that's what made me kind of realize it when I was unpacking it earlier today the minis that come in
33:31
the Regular Pack don't have screen printing on and I was so disappointed
33:36
then I realized that they were in the cuz i' backed the swankier version cuz obviously it's got swankier bits so
33:43
clearly I'm I'm all in with that one that one had screen printed and why does it make such a difference I mean it
33:49
actually doesn't but I was so disappointed when I thought I wasn't going to get the screen printed one I was like oh these don't look as good as
33:56
the other one and it made real difference and that kind of really kind of hit me that that little bit of I
34:01
don't know it's not paint is it whatever it is sublimation sublimation printer yeah anyway yeah it just makes such a
34:08
massive difference and I yeah didn't think didn't realize that until today I'm kind of time in a place with
34:14
sublimation I think sometimes it does look really really nice and sometimes it actually looks nice just having the bare wood depending on what it is how depends
34:21
what it is um but there are some really really nice sublimation you know wooden pieces out there but like Frost Punk
34:28
which is anybody knows is my favorite game of all time you could buy What's called the timber City expansion yeah uh
34:34
which came with all the buildings in a building shape but with a sublimation artwork on the side of it or you could
34:40
buy a box full of plastic minis um and you could choose which one was your was your preference and I chose the minis
34:47
and I'm not a big big player when it comes to these massive kickstarters that make $2 million do plus because they've
34:52
got amazing minis but it was nice to have the choice but I went for The Minis because I could paint them and it so it
34:58
was more so rather than it just be a board game there was an also a side activity as well well I actually didn't
35:04
prefer the sublimation printed side ones I thought as a miniature as a 3D miniature looked nicer but I guess it
The textured feel of Wingspan's rulebook
35:09
depends on the game well so I'm going to go on to uh I know a game that's a lot of people's favorites it's fallen off a
35:16
little bit for me but there was something in this game when you first opened it up that just elevated it for
35:23
no reason other than the tactile feel of it and this is the r book for wingspan a
35:30
go on that yeah my list so oh is it yeah yeah but but I would wipe my ass with
35:37
that paper and and St might generally have I'm going to completely wipe over
35:42
that comment I'm not I think stone m generally most of
35:47
them are pretty good but because of the size of the wingspan rule book and the way it was out and then just that
35:53
textured quality to the wingspan rule book I felt like I was buying the most
35:58
premium product in the world and it came with cardboard tokens but because of you
36:04
start reading that rule book and you're like oh man you're just reading it and you're enjoying reading it because it
36:10
looks and feels so premium as a rule book so good and I don't understand why
36:15
now a lot of companies will print these really cheap looking Rule books that look like they've guillotined like the
36:22
the rule book themselves on their own little home Guillotine almost when you can have a rule book like like that that
36:28
I'm sure it does cost a bit more and I'm sure there's plenty of cost added by a the weight and B the qual having to buy
36:34
the quality of the paper and all that kind of stuff but just to add that Chunk in if you're thinking your product is
36:40
premium and then you're skimping on the rule book it just kind of lit me up to the idea of having these premium feel
36:46
quality looking Rule books and I think wingspan was the first one that made me go wow like I'm so glad to be reading
36:53
this rule book in such good quality it's such a great rule book and it it's
36:58
it's a shame now that they some reason I think at least the last three titles um
37:05
that stone meire have done is they've done that same quality rule book with the same paper but they're an A5 and
37:13
much prer them in A4 I know it's I know it's a picky it's a little bit picky but it's just it's just it's nicer having
37:19
less Pages having and and having a larger format yeah but they to feel they
37:25
love so nice and I for some reason when I handle that paper I handle it with
37:31
much more care than I do if if it's got a kind of a standard average paper ra book I I can't believe we're talking
37:38
about paper ra it make perfect makes perfect sense I love it it's this is why
37:44
why I wanted to do these this episode is because we talked about the bling episode before where we talked about you know what what the publish basically not
37:51
get right that we go away and improve but I wanted to talk about all the things that the Publishers do get right because and this is the prime example
37:58
for me like a lot of what we're talking about are prime examples where quite often sometimes they'll cost a bit more like you know discs versus custom cut
38:06
shapes I'm sure do cost a little bit more printed paper probably does cost a little bit more but for the most part they're probably quite small things that
38:12
make us remember a game or make us remember how we feeled when we first opened the box and saw those components or first put it on the table and I think
38:20
the rule book is quite often the first thing you might punch out the boards and stuff like like tokens but the rule book
38:26
is quite often because of the nature of the rule but the first thing you look at and I thought man this just feels like a premium product and I don't even know if
38:33
I like the game CU I've not even put it on the table yet I guess it's like having a nicely presented plate of food
38:38
isn't it it's going to taste the same whether it's all mixed up but your first bite is with the eye isn't it if you've
38:44
got that kind of oh this is a good game you're already primed to think this is a good game you it's kind of setting you
38:52
up to enjoy it I think I agree one I was going to talk about really briefly
The squidgy berries and resources in Everdell
38:58
um and I've got a nod to a few other things but I think they're more going down the road of like big upgrades so we won't go too far with it but um yeah
39:04
talking about the quality that you were talking about that rule book I would say the one thing that hit me the most was everel and the resources so the berries
39:12
in particular oh my God I just love them I just I just play with these tiny little berries they're just there're
39:18
such a like there really wasn't a massive reason for them to go ahead and put such thought and um expense frankly
39:26
into the materials they use for it like you know even like the little Pebbles they look like little flipping Pebbles
39:32
that you would skim across the you know they're beautiful they're beautiful all of them like the logs are really well
39:37
thought out you know that every all of the resources just look really nice really premium really well thought out
39:44
and love them yeah I when I was so put off by that tree in ell because it felt
39:49
like such a sales a tree I love the tree and actually it gets in the way of playing it literally gets in the way of
39:56
playing but I agree with you to the point where I uh his his confession time
40:02
I actually put one of those berries in my mouth and it wasn't my own copy of the
40:07
game was it my copy no it wasn't your copy I picked it up and I was squiding
40:12
it and then I thought I wonder what this I have to know what like what these squidy bits like almost feel like to
40:19
taste and I that was a half a second thought and I put it in my mouth realized what I'd done and managed to kind of fish it out of my mouth and wipe
40:26
it off a bit without hopefully too many people noticing it I literally all it was was I put kind of between my lips
40:32
and just kind of like gummed it almost with my lips and put it back again and I was
40:38
like and since then I've like it doesn't matter how cool a component is I'm so mindful of the fact that don't just pop
40:44
this in your mouth Adrian these are words you shouldn't have to say to yourself it's generally a
40:50
good philosophy for life is don't just pop it randomly in your mouth St me all right not going to lie yeah I I
40:57
completely understand that that kind of I need to know what the what the the squidges is the the the the recoil of
41:04
this rubbery Berry I know exactly what you mean I know exactly what you mean but this this does this take us back to
41:10
like when we're like babies obviously all babies put things in their mouth to test it must is that that must be that
41:16
it's that thing of like don't press the big red button yeah it's that for me it felt very as soon as I'd done it I was
41:22
like you basically just pushed the big red button and didn't even think about it just put it straight in your mouth
41:27
with no thought or concept or anything I love the idea of this yeah so there's there you go there's why just someone's
41:33
knocking around with like one Barry in there you so yeah so hopefully they
41:39
listen to this podcast those people because I've played with them a few times and they'll probably never G with me again I think we need to do a board
41:44
game confessions kind of let go with it one of my ones is when
When games don't just pick standard player colours
41:50
they choose more interesting colors for player colors now I know this obviously has to come with a bit of a caveat for
41:57
for people that have got um visual uh accessibility issues like maybe they're
42:02
color blind or or partially cited or whatever but I just really like it when games pick not just red blue green
42:10
yellow whatever I really like that and I think that kind of came to my mind again
42:15
unpacking dog park yes it is still red green but it's pale green yeah it's like
42:22
a lavender rather than a blue or a purple and I just think that's really nice it just makes just makes a change
42:28
just makes a change gong comes to mind for that cuz I love the colors that are in goong for not sort of being
42:35
traditional adjacent almost in like it's like a light blue or it's an orangey color or something mustard yeah
42:41
absolutely totally agree and I really like I really like just the just the going out there a little bit differently
42:47
yeah although it does upset those people who are adamantly red green well players you know we have to mix it up sometimes
42:54
don't we there's nothing wrong with mixing it up I agree I love it and I I do think it it's a point of difference
43:00
but yeah I I know people who are so adamantly like this is my color that when there's that color is not available they're almost like lost at sea as how
43:07
on Earth can I uh Cody keeps looking at me I have no idea why he keep this is how you got your nickname mate yeah I
43:13
like yellow what's your what's your nickname dad you tell everyone cuz you the big
43:19
baby of board gaming because I like I like to have my my color however if my color is not available because they
43:25
didn't put it in there but there is a color that's similar to it like tan go
43:30
for it or white like you know I think Cava has like yellow white and tan yeah
43:36
so as long as I have one of those I'm all right I'm all right but I I do I am a little bit yeah I'm a little bit anal
43:43
when it comes to like I like I like to have yellow I'll tell you the one thing that got me the most and the reason why I called down the big the big baby of
43:49
board gaming is purely and simply because he wanted to play a game so I brought it to his house to be able to
43:56
play it and then Becky always plays yellow as well and he took the yellow and refused to give it up even though
44:02
mind but I don't care yeah but it wasn't that it was the point of it flipping took it and was like no it's mine I'm
44:07
yellow but it's not even your flipping game mate I think you'll do is your flipping toll we got three yellow players around the table here then good
44:14
yellow well I I I always go whatever you want and everyone leaves yellow in my group that's exactly what I play so I
44:20
always take yellow and so I've ended up just being the yellow player because no one else wanted it in any of the groups
44:26
I ever played and then there's three of us now that's the same with me I don't really care but I picked yellow because
44:32
I because nobody picked yellow because I when I started playing games Dan wasn't in game in groups that I play games with
44:39
so had that been the case I wonder what my color would be because if Dan's always going to pick yellow I mean I
44:44
don't know he just a bully basically yeah I like to bully people make sure I'm yellow nobody else no I think it's more of a testament
44:52
to your kind of beta personalities really I right you know just let the the alphas have green basically and then you
44:58
guys going to have the leavings of yellow who else bothers with green you haveen Davey those two fight over green
45:03
all the time Dave and Curly it's quite funny when the first one gets through the door and they can see there's green on the table and they like push it to
45:09
where they normally sit just so the other person can't we've come to a little lately actually was like no you take green mate honestly you take green
45:16
I'll be I'll be uh gray this time you know actually I was going to say like on a serious note cuz I'm jesting with all
45:21
of that by the way um yeah on a serious note it doesn't I do like seeing
45:27
different colors and I don't mind the normal colors but what I hate is really
45:32
really boring colors I got to be honest like your um gray your gray yeah well
45:38
exactly that like your Grays and your beige and your Tans I'm not that Keen on but like they're really like oh look how
45:45
drab that is it's like I don't want to be any of the colors they all look the same and they all look boring so yeah I
45:51
I don't like it when it's the other way around so yeah it's uh the small things that piss you off is another episode Maybe
45:58
we're trying to say positive pizza here so we keep that I'll do an episode for that CU you know I'm the Grinch
46:03
basically it's true have we swapped personalties yeah maybe slightly another one that I uh I um
Transparent cards in Fallout Shelter & Canvas
46:11
notice but not often notice is um there's I think I know of at least three
46:16
games that do this two I can name um and that is one is fallout shelter uh and
46:21
the other one is canvas which is transparent cards oh I love semi-transparent cards you don't see
46:27
that often and it's a really nice touch um so fallout shelter has um transparent cards that you overlay over the top of
46:34
the Vault uh rooms that enable you to basically put creatures in them which
46:39
they could have used just a token or a chit of some kind or a cube but instead they did a transparent card that
46:45
literally just goes over the top of the room card so it looks like that that is now one card that is a small aesthetic
46:52
but it just looks really really nice and it means that that card then is adaptable and can be used in other different rooms rather than just in one
46:58
place um but it just looks really nice canvas is the is the same with the transparent cards don't get to see that
47:04
often they could have done it different way but I quite like that it's nice it's different it's not often it's used it's original yeah I Gloom was the first one
47:12
Gloom was the first one I thought of when you said about transparent cards I've got canvas as well but yeah Gloom
47:17
allowed and it is a it is a game function right CU you need to see what's underneath those cards in order
47:23
foras to see how the game works but the fact that they could have done a few different things with that and that
47:30
what they did was transparent cards they could have done did you say tokens or counters or anything like that but the transparent cards it's just cool it just
47:37
makes it look a bit different often no no I agree there's a similar um mechanic
47:43
to that that um I really like as well and it is kind of a mechanic so in the one type it's a mechanic in the other
47:49
type I don't think they needed to but it's still really cool is the decrypto thing with the whole like you know decryption of the word type type thing
47:55
oh I've not played decrypto but like the Nemesis exactly it's got like the the what i'
48:02
call the cial Box thing with the red lens and you I really like that just cuz it adds a little something to it like um
48:09
you don't know what you're going to get till the end and you just yeah it's just really good fun and quite thematic and
48:14
yeah it's better than a Deck card isn't it yeah well exactly it just it just makes it feel more fun yeah that sort of
48:21
toy Factor approach exactly 100% one of my ones on here that again is uh it's
The rubber hats in Viticulture World
48:27
actually about another spongy piece but this time I haven't put it in my mouth um which is uh the V culture World hats
48:34
yeah sey there's something about that design choice that really elevated that
48:41
game for me and really made me go this is cool and not something maybe I would have thought of personally so for those
48:46
who don't know viticulture World takes the base game and um makes it
48:52
Cooperative with a new board and some new cards and stuff like that but for the most part a lot the original
48:57
components are the same now they could have made it an entirely Standalone game um and had new components or they could
49:03
have done little rings that you your your Miniatures slot into or anything like that but what they instead did was
49:09
give you these little hats that are two different colors that um sit on top of
49:14
the Maple and then when you train it locks them to so anything with a blue hat is locked to Winter anything with
49:20
the Yellow Hat is blocked to Summer and then when you train them up you take the little hats off the me
49:27
and and then they can be used anywhere and it was such a a visually distinctive idea that was thematic cuz you're in a
49:35
Vineyard if you're in the summer or like maybe not the winter but if you're in the summer have your little hat on and
49:40
now you go into the fields and all that kind of stuff felt so thematic as well as being just a cool little component I
49:46
thought what a great idea and I know that um friend of the show Marcus also talks about Oak with the cloaks going on
49:53
now I've not played Oak but it does look quite cool when you've got like little Miniatures that you put a little cloak
49:59
on top of to designate that they're more powerful in some way or I've not played it so I don't know but when you see it
50:05
on the board you're like oh those pieces must be better or must be more important and okay it's kind of the opposite of f
50:11
culture world you want them to be trained so you want to take the hats off but such a nice little idea of like
50:17
let's put the put these extra little pieces onto a game and yeah I thought it
50:22
was just great V culture order is tough as and I don't think it's for everyone but I think from a design Choice it
50:28
really like made me go oh what is this why why do I need to play this game cuz of little squidgy hats that you put on
50:35
me totally agree so with me I guess this is a bit of a cheat because it doesn't
Adding that second layer to player boards
50:41
come in the base game but my reason I've written it down is because I've never played the bass version of the game it's
50:47
the dual air boards and terraforming Mars nice now what I think they could
50:52
should I don't know how they would do this but actually I think the the big Advantage for dual air boards is if
50:58
you're doing like scoring I know obviously on terraform miles you're doing it for your own production but the
51:03
amount of times that your token falls off of like a a VP or in terraforming
51:09
Mars terraforming rating tracker it's really annoying and we've got the lovely fold out nepr mat for Lords of water de
51:17
but that mat is so big even on our massive table it just falls off the edge a little bit so when you're scoring All
51:24
Around The Edge one it's all always hanging off one Edge and it's really annoying that that's where your VP
51:30
trekking is so I really like the dual air boards that offer that kind of it's
51:35
less likely for your little square Cube or whatever it is at the time to move and I think that's really good in terraform Mars really makes that game
51:43
it's really functional it looks nice I like how when your energy goes to heat
51:48
at the end of it it's got like a little slidy thing I think that's just really nice and I just wish we could kind I was
51:53
actually looking at crib cribbage boards earlier to see is there some way that we could like make a Lords of Water Deep
51:59
scoring thing that doesn't go around the edge I'm you know I'm still making it in my mind to work at the minute but so
52:04
annoying when the cubes don't say in the little areas where they should and when it's something that's important as VP
52:11
like you know normally I'm going to lose by more than one but that one might be very important so I need to know where
52:17
my little square is the fact that terraforming Mars does not come with Jewel layer boards as standard is
52:24
ridiculously criminal uh I remember talking to you about it cuz it was you that got me into it curly and you said about terraforming Mars and I said about
52:30
getting it um and you told me that they didn't come like what that was one of the big things where I remember seeing a
52:36
lot of people buying upgrades for so yes any game these days that comes with that automatically yeah I think it's great I
52:44
mean smart phoning one of my current sort of new favorites the actual board itself is Je air which makes the board
52:50
like a good sort of inch and a half thick when it's folded up but it's really cool to have like slots on the
52:56
main board as well as your own little player board yeah definitely so I've got an honorable mention I was thinking
53:02
about talking about the 3D tiles on terraforming Mars but I thought that might be a little bit too big to be a
53:07
small thing so an honorable mention for those They Don't Really add to the game because the original does come a cardboard and that does the job but it
53:14
just makes it so much better pretty they are extremely pretty um so yeah just all the 3D TS little mention te um and I've
53:23
said I'm not going to say that cuz it's uh not small enough and then they thing I'm going talk about it's probably bigger actually but never mind um
53:29
tapestry landmarks yeah I just flipping love them I think they're so now I will say they
53:35
do have a function so I guess slightly different to uh the theme of the episode
53:41
however they didn't have to be anywhere near so premium as they are they're so nice they're so detailed they're so
53:48
beautiful there's so many of them and even though and actually when you look at it you kind of think oh this is the
53:53
main part of the game but actually it's just like really so it's just yeah just
53:59
love them absolutely love them that's my I do have a problem with them one problem with them they need to have what
54:06
they are written underneath now our copy now our copy does because I wrote it in pen but it's so annoying when you're
54:12
trying to sort of sort them out and okay some of them are very obvious some of them are not quite as obvious and it
54:18
just gets really irritating when you're like is this this thing or is that oh bloody isn't and now we've got the very
54:24
premium folded space insert have to say beautiful love it you need to have kind of the names written of what they are
54:31
because then you can pack it away easily it's got if you bought the um the updated Civ pack then inside that K of
54:37
key that showed you what they all were and their shape which is not still not the greatest yeah it's more of an you
54:44
got to hold the thing get aook look it I want it just written underneath you know Clock Tower I don't know is that one of
54:49
them can't remember but pendulum yeah I just want it to say underneath now yes
54:55
you can do that with a pen you shouldn't have to do it with a pen but they are beautiful so they are
55:00
beautiful but yeah I think as well like bleeds into what you were just saying their pendulum um is the fact that
55:06
they're all based on their other games I think not all of them they are in one of the expansions um they are so like they
55:12
got the viticulture uh Vineyard you've got they' got the pendulum clock uh you've got a a bird tower Tower
55:21
Wings where's your dragon eggs where's the dragony stuff I mean I know they wrote that did it after I know but if
55:27
they need if they need to do like a retrospective they stopped tapestry which as would be pretty pleased
55:33
about but if if I mean I wish they would make make more cuz those landmarks are just Lush there a reason for me to buy
55:40
like oh what what's the next expansion oh it's great landmarks great what they look like and it's the first thing you look at but it was when they were doing
55:47
them but do love it and I love tapestry sorry same you you're allowed to like
55:53
[ __ ] games smartphone boring a I like smart anyway
56:01
um on that point though so when we were going around Essen it was that 3D sort
56:08
of uh Landmark idea that Drew me to uh world wonders which I still haven't played yet um but it looks interesting
56:16
because it's got these landmarks on a board full of like basically like little cardboard tokens and then you've got
56:22
these quite tall um landmarks on that it looks really interesting I really want
56:28
to play it and for me they're such a good publisher um from arcan wonders they've had so many games that I love
56:34
smart friending for instance um that I absolutely love that I just can't imagine me hating it I may not love it
56:40
but I really want to play it and it was when you were walking around all these Halls it's those kind of things that
56:46
actually make a game stand out from all the other things you see and I think that is a big part of why we've got what
56:51
we've got now with all these massive Miniatures and stuff like that is because not only does it need to look good on Kickstarter but convention halls
56:58
and stuff like that people want them to look good but I think these kind of uh what's the term where they kind of re
57:05
themselves in a little bit they've done something big but they haven't done it for everything they've just done it for important little pieces or whatever I
57:11
think it's a great touch that they do where it doesn't suddenly turn it into a massive box that takes up three CX cubes
Creating randomness through inventive dice towers
57:17
and all that kind of stuff I like a replacement for a dice for any D if know
57:22
you can always roll a die for a random outcome but if you can do something like replaces that element and makes it a bit
57:28
more thematic and all for it and talking about my favorite game Frost Punk when you pop those cubes in the top of that
57:35
generator generator that is so pleasing and also punishing at the same time
57:41
because it's really really hard to do when you're dropping cubes into the top of the generator um miniature you're
57:47
trying to get it so that they rest on the little grooves with inside the tower and if they fall through then your
57:53
generator is taking more stress um you could have rolled a dice you could have rolled a dice and if it was a five or six or whether it's a
57:59
success or if it's lower then you're fine but the fact that they kind of removed that kind of boring aspect of it
58:05
and done something that that's physical by dropping in essentially the resource that is causing the stress I.E coal into
58:13
the top nice touch really really like that Overkill perhaps a little cuz the miniature is not miniature it's huge
58:19
yeah Tower in the middle but but also it access the centerpiece through the game anyway so I think it's it's multiple
58:25
purpose um but yeah all over that love it I want to add a little um addition to
58:30
dice as well cuz you made me think of it JP's hopler Marcus metal dice oh my God they're so sexy I'm not seeing them yeah
58:37
they're nice if I could have sex with a board game component it would that dice that's a whole other episode is it yeah
58:44
that's that's a daily episode all day long is it if you could have a sex with any which one would it be and
58:53
why the dice to thing reminds me have you played either Shogun or wallenstein
58:59
no it's Queen game and it's a different thing but when you're doing an action
59:05
you put so many of your own cubes in top of this Tower and this Tower's only got certain holes in it so like in inside
59:12
the mechanic inside the sort of central bit so what you put in is not what will come out because there'll be little
59:18
cubes in that stuck inside the tower that it pushes out and again it's randomizing and it's creating you know
59:23
you might go to war in an area but if a load of you opponent stuff comes out they will like they'll count as resistance I think if I it's been a
59:30
while since I play but they will count for something and you have to put them as like a like there's like little Villages that count as resistance and
59:36
stuff like that and again it takes them it it sort of gamifies it toys makes a
59:41
toy out of a very simple mechanic of you're putting a handful of stuff in
59:46
what comes out you could have again rolled dice okay on a five up it doesn't make it out of the Tower and you get a
59:53
um you know like a villager or something something instead who's going to revolt no instead that you just putting these
59:59
little cubes inside this Tower and you can hear it all clicking clacking around and then what come out you might put four cubes in and seven cubes will come
1:00:06
out or one Cube might come out it's kind of a nice idea because it then becomes
1:00:11
someone else's turn and they might be like they've just loaded that Tower with stuff I don't want in it because they've
1:00:16
put all of these colored cubes in do I now want to put mine in what's the chance of getting mine out what's the chance of getting my opponent stuff out
1:00:23
um while I don't think it's the best game it's such a great idea built within that that game itself so yeah and you
1:00:31
talking about this Tower in the middle it is that it's a terrifying Tower to one side that's just random sort of uh a
1:00:38
bit of a random generator that you kind of fear almost because if you put those cubes in you just don't know what you're
1:00:44
actually getting out of it and yeah I think it's a great a great shout love that if there there's anything that's
1:00:50
that's come to your mind while you've been listening and you thought that's a that's something part of a game that I
1:00:56
love please drop it in our comments on our social media or or send us an email or anything that we love to hear about
1:01:01
these little things that have brought a game to life for you so yeah please get in touch if there's anything that's comeing to
TURN 4 - Would you rather play a game which was slightly too small or slightly too big
1:01:16
mind now we are onto our would you rather section where I will ask you would you rather option A or option b so
1:01:24
option A is every game you ever play is just too small for you all the detail
1:01:30
like all the print is too small all the pieces are a little bit too fiddly or is it always too big you can barely hold
1:01:37
the cards it barely fits on the table which would of those would you
1:01:42
choose would you rather every game you ever play from now on is just too small for you personally or just too big I
1:01:49
would go option A just too small yeah get his magnifying glass out get magnifying glass out um I would uh I
1:01:57
could have more on the Shelf because they're smaller so I'm looking at the positive side of these things um if it's
1:02:02
too big and I can't put it on the table that is going to drive me insane uh so yeah just for that reason about getting
1:02:09
components on a table and playing it with people option A every time too small I'm going too
1:02:16
big I don't blame you she likes she likes it big just just slight
1:02:21
uncomfortably too large y That's What I that's my wheelhouse yes um
1:02:29
the top because because I'm going too big because I hate it when I'm sat at a
1:02:36
table and I have to keep getting up to look at something on the the board the map the whatever gets on my Wick real
1:02:43
bad and okay I might need to buy some little card holders if the cards are too big or or whatever but it's so
1:02:50
infuriating when I can't see something I really need to see and then it's obvious I'm looking over at that part part of
1:02:55
the map or whatever so it might be giving away Clues to what I'm trying to do so I don't like it when I can't see
1:03:01
so you have everything too big so you can see it easily but it barely fits on the table you can barely put like four
1:03:07
CS in your hand I can I can make something to sort that out uh I'm going to go for option b I think you want
1:03:13
everything to be just too big you can always buy a bigger boat mate I just buy a bigger [ __ ] table happy days it's
1:03:20
fair enough but the main reason that Becky said really is like yeah you could use magnifying glass but I'd be more interested in being able to see things
1:03:26
from further away and yeah yeah that's what I prefer nice I couldn't I'll be
1:03:31
honest I couldn't make up my mind the only thought I had is that I I think I have the most spidery like little
1:03:38
fingers out of all of my friends and if I went too small their big sausage fingers would probably also not manage
1:03:47
the games cuz I like like the tiny epic series and even like the ultra tiny series or there's the there's a a
1:03:54
company that makes like miniature versions of Monopoly where like each card is is maybe like 2 cm by 1 I think
1:04:01
all of those things are absolutely great um and I think they're quite often managing to do a lot with a little and
1:04:08
even if it was just a bit like I've got to put the card right in front of my face to read it I think for me that
1:04:13
would be fine but I think because I'm I've got my say my little wiry spider
1:04:18
fingers that like cope with the smaller pieces and don't knock everything across
1:04:24
the table a mile a practice of dealing with small pieces it I've got spidery fingers but I'm a clumsy person so I can
1:04:32
I've got good articulation but I'm clumsy so yeah and for me that's why I think going too small would be probably
1:04:40
preferable but I think everyone around the table if a game is too small for me everyone else around the table would
1:04:45
also absolutely hate playing that game is because they would absolutely with their big fat sausage fingers just wipe
1:04:52
half the board out repeatedly and be like oh sorry you're saying I'm not a delicate Little Flower that's exactly
1:04:58
what I'm saying Fair comment that's why I stared at you all the way through that
1:05:04
segment I thought you were just looking at me lovingly well there we go so I think we've done 50/50 there half of us
1:05:11
half of us want it too big half of us want it too [Music]
TURN 5 - Penultimate Turn: What's Coming Up
1:05:19
small and that now brings us on to our penultimate turn where we talk about what we're looking forward to doing in the next few weeks Dan what are you up
Dan - Terraforming Mars
1:05:26
to I am playing terraforming Mars with good Mr curly in a few weeks time and
1:05:32
I'm really looking forward to that I really like it when we play TM it's not often that we get to do it because of My Crazy Life U however when we do it I
1:05:39
always have a good time I never win I never win but I I I do a little better each time I think and I really really
1:05:45
enjoy it and I love playing that game and I like getting immersed in that world for a few hours and it's really fun so yeah very much looking forward to
1:05:50
that a few weeks mate I'm looking forward to that too mate so um a little um nod to Heroes of my magic which I'm
Kerley - Kerley - Heroes of Might & Magic III & Anunnaki: Dawn of the Gods
1:05:57
playing tomorrow night um new game kickstarted arrived a couple of weeks ago and my friend Warren is coming
1:06:03
around uh to play that so I'm really looking forward to that but I'm not going to go too far down that road because I'm probably just going to give
1:06:09
people a bit of an idea of what it's like once I've played it um but what I'm looking forward to is going to be a game
1:06:15
that I've had on my sh shame for quite a long time now called um anunaki dawn of the Gods so JP and Rob played it at
1:06:23
Essen I think um and I kickstarted it last year sometime and um just mainly
1:06:29
because of the theme um it's kind of fantasy sci-fi alien kind of is there dinosaurs
1:06:36
in it no dinosaurs but it is you know a nice mix between fantasy and science fiction um with some really interesting
1:06:43
looking mechanics so yeah just really looking forward to that me Rob and JP are getting that to the table on Monday
1:06:48
night nice where they're doing a lot of mini teach where they warn me they don't know it greatly but it the teacher ESS
1:06:56
yes no matter how badly they do it oh really was it that bad it was it was a rough it was very noisy we were all
1:07:02
tired and it was a rough teach and I think all of that coming together but I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to so I'm think I'd like it I
1:07:08
think so yeah not definite not definite but I think you will like it so I'll
1:07:15
keep my fingers crossed for you okay thank you but yeah so looking forward to getting that to the table finally trying
1:07:20
to get a few things off my shelf for shame dinogenics next yes yes please that does look good yes please that does
Becky - JP's Birthday Games Day
1:07:28
look good let me know Becky what have you got coming up it is JP's birthday it
1:07:33
is very soon so this weekend we're having a gaming day so I'm really looking forward to that I think it's
1:07:38
going to be good just to hopefully play a few more of the light kind of games you don't get to the table that often so
1:07:44
yeah I want to introduce you all to Mill Meadows and probably lose but you know whatever I I will I will lose valiantly
1:07:52
um yeah just playing the sort of the smaller little games I don't know were we going to play Avalon this time H
1:07:58
possibly yeah maybe there's more than one table right so I don't have to join the main thing there no I'm I think I
1:08:06
think it's better to say we're all looking forward to to it and I like games days because you can if you want to play a big long game you can do if
1:08:11
you want to play a bunch of small games you can do you can kind of mix and match we're going to be there for quite a few hours so yeah I think he's going to have
1:08:17
three three tables set up which is nice so you know if um I think he's planning on cracking on with an Acron to begin
1:08:23
with and me and Becky will turn up I know Becky want to play anacron so there's the option either for her or me
1:08:28
and her to play something else it's it's going to be a nice crack I think I just need to work out what food I'm going to
1:08:34
bring snacks snacks snacks snacks I'm missing outar bit F over there I I keep
1:08:40
telling myself I need to play that game and then never join in on the games when they get played no have not I don't know
1:08:47
if it will be for you just because I'm still not entirely sure what your taste is yeah not not that it's not that
1:08:52
you've got bad taste or anything it's just the fact that some things I'm like Adrian will love that and you [ __ ] hate it other things I'm like Adrian
1:08:59
will [ __ ] hate that and he's like oh that's really good I genuinely think it's just game I don't even know if I
1:09:04
could tell you what my own tastes are I just if I play a game and I like it I like it and there's kind of can't that
1:09:09
there are some patterns but yeah it's not like I will only play but yeah I
Adrian - Trying an upgraded 3D printer & creating inserts
1:09:15
need to get that game played how about you Adrian what you done for I've got quite a bit of gaming coming up but it's all non descript so I don't really know
1:09:22
what I've got to play coming up I've just got package of time in to play board games and we'll play what we play
1:09:28
but um couple of bits and pieces I'm quite looking forward to my 3D printer broke again which is now twice in six
1:09:34
months which one you got uh prusa mini which was which was lovely and ran so
1:09:40
smoothly out of the box for so long and now it's broken fairly heavily twice
1:09:45
I've had it like three years four years at this point so it's kind of fair enough but a very good friend was very
1:09:51
kind and lent me his Mark III prer Mini uh prer Prin so large larger printer bed
1:09:57
and um just much nicer generally and I'm really looking forward to giving that a wh cuz it might make my decision as to
1:10:04
whether I need to upgrade my 3D printer or not so really looking forward to that and there's some inserts that I've been
1:10:10
putting off because the the ones I found online are too big for the small print
1:10:16
bed and I thought well I'll design my own one that'll be fine but actually if I've got a larger print bed that my
1:10:22
friends lent me then I can just print them off using that so I'm looking looking forward to that and the other thing which I told myself I absolutely
1:10:29
was not going to do which is kind of board game adjacent that I've now being strong armed yeah that might be the the
1:10:35
right the right term into doing is um I will be playing the old world in the next couple of weeks so Warhammer the
1:10:43
old world for those who don't know Warhammer fantasy used to be Rank and file on Square bases um they blew up
1:10:49
that world and turned it into age of Sigma which is a good game I've not played a lot of it but it is a good game
1:10:55
just I haven't found myself wanting to get into it as much and then they announced the old world which is
1:11:01
basically a retake on the original Rank and file fantasy models and I told myself that I played enough fantasy and
1:11:08
I was kind of done with the system I didn't need to do it and then everyone started posting up all the armies that they've been putting together and
1:11:13
playing and all the fun they've been having and so I went out bought myself an army and I've nearly put it all together ready to play a game so who are
1:11:20
you playing us uh beastman BR herds okay so which was one of my last armies of
1:11:26
fantasy that I had that I didn't quite finish um and one that interests me
1:11:32
because it's not my normal play style but a lot of the ones are my normal play style the armies aren't out yet and I
1:11:37
couldn't be bothered to wait cuz everyone gave me fomo with their cool looking armies what's your normal play
1:11:43
style uh walk into the middle of the board with lots of armor or toughness and just hold there so dwares Empire to
1:11:50
some extent High Elves all that kind of CHA warri of chaos all kind of walk in and hold a line generally however you do
1:11:57
it you kind of kind of hold that middle of the board which is definitely not beastmen um and my other last Army that
1:12:03
I was looking at was wood elves as well and that's definitely not that style either so yeah so looking forward to
1:12:10
trying that which is a bit bit different I do a lot of um sort of War games and stuff like that anyway um not a lot I'd
1:12:17
like to do more but I do a chunk of it and uh yeah this is the one that sort of
1:12:22
I told myself I absolutely was not going to play it and then got promo and bought it so there you go and that's it and
TURN 6 - The Final Turn
1:12:28
that brings us on to our final turn I want to say thank you very much for listening if you enjoyed this episode
1:12:33
please let your friends know about it or leave us a podcast review or comment on our socials or anything you can do to
1:12:41
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1:12:47
also now have coffee Kofi um which is our sort of uh backa platform quite
1:12:54
often the topic for these episodes we send out as an email so you can vote what kind of episodes you hope for for
1:13:00
the future if you would like to get in touch uh feedback or anything like that much appreciated through either your
1:13:05
podcast player of choice or through our socials or you can email us all of those details are in the show notes below and
1:13:13
with that whose turn is it Anyway
1:13:20
[Music] [Applause]