transcript
Speaker 1:
[00:00] At the Table with The Dice Tower, Episode 69, To Go Order.
Speaker 2:
[00:25] Welcome to At the Table with the Dice Tower, a podcast about games and the people who play them. On today's show, we look at what games are hiding in our bags, always ready at a moment's notice. Who says there won't be time for a 10-minute filler during your nephew's wedding cocktail reception? Plus, a tale of horror, and we venture into a new batch of roses, thorns and hula hoops. I'm Eric Summerer.
Speaker 1:
[00:47] I'm Julie Ahern.
Speaker 3:
[00:48] And I'm Tom Vasel. And welcome to the show, everybody. Welcome to Spring. Spring.
Speaker 2:
[00:56] I think literally we can say it's spring now. I know you've been saying that for a few weeks now, but I think, yeah, for real.
Speaker 1:
[01:02] Isn't there supposed to be snow this weekend in Massachusetts and Maine? Maybe a little north of you.
Speaker 2:
[01:09] Actually, we did get sleet yesterday morning, so I guess I can't be completely confident.
Speaker 1:
[01:14] That is absolutely a New England spring. I'm going to.
Speaker 2:
[01:17] Oh, yeah, yeah. A little bit of sleet. It's not spring without a little bit of sleet.
Speaker 3:
[01:20] Sleet is all the terrible stuff about snow without the beauty. No, that's freezing rain.
Speaker 2:
[01:26] Freezing rain is not pretty. I guess when it coats the trees and they glitter, like they're made of glass before they fall over, yeah, they're-
Speaker 3:
[01:32] Yes, and you're like, wow, that's beautiful as you're falling. Yes. But hey, spring is here in the board game world anyway. We are gearing up for the summer because the summer is the Christmas of boardgaming. Also, Christmas is the Christmas of boardgames. But one thing to look forward to this summer is Dice Tower East. Very excited about that, working on the library. The library has gone through massive changes, moved shelves around, it's chaos.
Speaker 2:
[02:04] Have you been collecting props?
Speaker 3:
[02:06] Well, not yet. Also, I don't know if I need to.
Speaker 1:
[02:13] I'm excited, I'm so curious as to what happens.
Speaker 3:
[02:16] Well, don't listen to Eric, it's not as exciting as all that. It's more of just maneuvering to shelves and we move things around and shelf 10 is now shelf one and shelf two is now...
Speaker 2:
[02:28] Whoa!
Speaker 3:
[02:28] Well, what I decided to do is put the welcoming games as shelf one. That should be the first shelf.
Speaker 1:
[02:35] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[02:35] Oh, I love that. All right, I appreciate that. Dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria.
Speaker 1:
[02:42] Oh, and ghosts.
Speaker 3:
[02:43] Lots of games, lots and lots of games. But you know, not anyway, I've been playing a lot of games lately, but it's it's becoming rarer, I think, for a game to be like, wow, this is amazing. But that might just be the February, March blues because you played all the exciting games directly after Essen. But there still could be things that you find. Now is the time if you're still cold to think about coming on the cruise. Dice Tower Cruise, registration is live. It is our 10th anniversary. We are going on the best cruise ship I have ever been on, the Icon of the Seas.
Speaker 2:
[03:18] The best.
Speaker 3:
[03:20] Yes. Well, that's what happens, folks. Sometimes you have people who mock and make fun while the rest of us are excited.
Speaker 1:
[03:28] I was going to say, well, you're just simply showing excitement.
Speaker 2:
[03:31] Sorry, I'll make my comments spares.
Speaker 3:
[03:34] Yes, because I've never made fun of Eric. This is very much a one-sided thing. Yeah, Dice Tower Cruise. So check both of those things out. And this is kind of fits in with what we're talking about because it is traveling with games. I just read a very amusing Reddit post where the person who was on Reddit was asking for a bag that they wanted to take to conventions with their wife. And they said, we want something that can be easily maneuverable in a convention that doesn't weigh very much, that can hold a boatload of games, that's easy to carry, that's inexpensive. And people were like, no.
Speaker 2:
[04:23] That's impossible.
Speaker 3:
[04:24] You want everything in the same bag. Cause they mentioned multiple bags and they're like, there's the all play bag. He's like, yeah, but it has a strap and I want to carry it the whole time.
Speaker 1:
[04:32] Listen, bags of holding are only found in RPGs.
Speaker 3:
[04:37] If they ever invent a bag of holding, though, huzzah.
Speaker 1:
[04:41] I know.
Speaker 3:
[04:42] I would be...
Speaker 2:
[04:43] I just narrated a book where the guy was just totally obsessed with getting a magical storage treasure and he was pissed that everybody else had one and he didn't and he didn't know why he couldn't get one. And he rejoiced when he finally got something, he just spent five minutes just causing things to appear and disappear. It was a whole scene. He was very excited.
Speaker 1:
[05:01] And that would be every gamer if we actually could get one. Yes.
Speaker 2:
[05:05] Anyway, I've derailed the conversation a little bit. Before we jump into the discussion, Julie has some exciting news to at least partially reveal. Julie, what's going on with you?
Speaker 1:
[05:18] You know, so today, as we're recording, so it'll be in the past by the time it airs, is my last day at Van Ryder Games.
Speaker 2:
[05:29] Oh my goodness, that's quite the pedigree. How long you've been there?
Speaker 1:
[05:32] This was year four.
Speaker 2:
[05:34] Wow.
Speaker 1:
[05:34] I know. So it has been a lovely time. I've learned many things. It's been a great opportunity, but something else has come up, and I'm not ready to announce that part yet. So don't worry, folks. I'm not, you know, board game homeless. I will be moving on and in the board game industry. But today is my last day at Vanrider. I am keeping all of my final girl. It is staying in my collection and still being in rotation, probably played very heavily.
Speaker 3:
[06:08] Yeah, but at Gen Count, when you walk by the Vanrider booth, there'll be Julie's girl just dead, laying there, like, what happened?
Speaker 2:
[06:15] Discount clearance rack? No.
Speaker 1:
[06:17] I don't think so. I feel like maybe I'll be more of a-
Speaker 2:
[06:23] Collector's item?
Speaker 1:
[06:23] Collector's item because you're gonna have to hunt me down to get it signed.
Speaker 3:
[06:26] I don't think- I'm a moving target at that point. I'm talking about Final Girl that you should say, hunt me down, but-
Speaker 1:
[06:31] Fair enough.
Speaker 2:
[06:37] Well, hopefully, we'll be able to share more maybe by next episode, who knows, question mark, but I'm excited for your new adventures.
Speaker 1:
[06:44] Me, too.
Speaker 2:
[06:45] All right, Tom, bags, bags of holding.
Speaker 3:
[06:48] Yeah, so we're talking here about traveling, and traveling with games in a game bag is just- it's really not practical, unfortunately. Talking about giant bags and bags to take to conventions, but my favorite bag is the All Play bag. I think it's a great bag that holds games, but that particular bag, this person who wanted this mythical bag also wanted it to travel with, you know, like as a piece of luggage or a carry-on. Like, no, that's not going to work for all these situations. And if you use a carry-on, you're pulling it around in wheels, it doesn't hold that many things, etc. But when you travel, there are some bags that people take with them that specifically are meant to hold small games and things like that. The most famous of these, I think, Eric, you have one, is the Quiver.
Speaker 2:
[07:34] Oh, yes. Yeah, I mean, this is- it's basically a card holder, a hard, semi-hard-sided, sort of like hard-sided luggage. But it just has some dividers in the inside. It's primarily designed to hold cards, sleeved or not, and it has a little pocket for some instructions, making it easy to carry around a whole big mass of card stock.
Speaker 3:
[07:54] I personally really highly recommend the Cavern Hold, that's C-A-V-E-R-N, Cavern Hold. And it is better than the Quiver in my opinion, because you can hold cards in it. You can stick in the little dividers to hold cards in it. It looks more like a briefcase size, but it can hold all sorts of games. So if a game is slightly bigger than a card game, or you want to keep your original boxes like a human being, you can fit them all in there, and you can fit quite a few in one of these. One of the last conventions I went to, I brought two of them full of games. I had two, and I was like, I barely got through one. There was just so many games that can fit inside it, which I think is really cool.
Speaker 1:
[08:41] That is very cool.
Speaker 2:
[08:42] I remember when you were carding those things around, you were more excited about the cavern-hold bag than you were about the games inside it, if I recall correctly.
Speaker 3:
[08:49] Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 1:
[08:51] For me, I use my backpack because I'm not, I guess ideally it would be nice to only be carrying games. But in truth, wherever I go, there's, I have a small first-aid kit, I have, you know, lip gloss. There's other things involved.
Speaker 2:
[09:11] You've got to leave room for the lip gloss.
Speaker 1:
[09:12] You know.
Speaker 3:
[09:12] But you don't need to do that at GenCon because there's that lady who walks around, I don't know if you've ever seen her, who's like a traveling.
Speaker 1:
[09:19] She's only the one. Oh yeah, no, she's delightful. But she's one and we are many, so you carry your own.
Speaker 2:
[09:26] Wait, this is a traveling merchant that goes around and gives you-
Speaker 1:
[09:30] She's just there to help.
Speaker 3:
[09:31] Yeah, a big chunk of it, Erica, she's there to help cosplayers. Like, oh, did something fall off? I got needles and thread and buttons. But she also carries first aid and stuff. She's like, yeah, a traveling merchant. But I think it's free, I think.
Speaker 1:
[09:46] It is.
Speaker 2:
[09:46] She's just there to help. I'm sure this is what she does, but that's awesome.
Speaker 1:
[09:49] She's a lovely human being and she's just there to look for people in distress and see if she can help out. There was also a guy this past year that I found delightful, who was a wizard, who just gave away potatoes, which wasn't as helpful.
Speaker 2:
[10:03] I'm sorry, that's less useful.
Speaker 3:
[10:03] I was going to say, that's delightful, but not as helpful.
Speaker 1:
[10:06] Infully more entertaining, but absolutely not as useful.
Speaker 2:
[10:11] We've strayed from the discussion a little bit.
Speaker 3:
[10:15] Well, look, I mean, the thing about bags and taking to conventions, it's always tricky. Like Julie mentioned, a backpack, I don't use my backpack if only because I carry my computer and my iPad and a bunch of wires and all that stuff in my backpack, and I don't want to take that into the game convention. I don't want all that stuff there. I'll travel through the airport with it and every place, but it also never leaves my side. I want a bag I can set down, which is why I don't use the backpack.
Speaker 1:
[10:45] That is fair.
Speaker 3:
[10:46] I could empty it at a convention, but that's such a pain.
Speaker 2:
[10:50] That's literally what I do, is empty it at the convention. I have two bags that I cart around to places. I have a very small portable one when I'm traveling around town that has my iPad and notebook in it for work, but it also has a pocket that I can throw in some accessories and small little things, including a whole bunch of the Paco games. I have those hiding in that bag. But then the one I carry around to conventions is a larger travel bag that holds my iPad and notebook and a whole bunch more stuff like recording equipment and water and things. Then when I get to a convention, I'll remove the iPad and notebook, the work stuff, and leave those in the hotel room, and that becomes my travel bag as I'm moving around the convention. That one has, buried in the bottom are a whole bunch of wallet games, Buttonshy games, and solo games, hiding in the bottom of this, just in case I have not prepared by bringing other games and I have an opportunity to play something, which is sort of where I was focusing this discussion.
Speaker 1:
[11:51] Yes. It's funny that you say that because I will bring a selection of games, usually in my suitcase, and I'll rotate out every day. So I don't bring a ton of them, but I have usually three on me. So that I, because Butt and Shaw, you can bring a lot, but I found, you're still like Tom said earlier, you're only going to get to a couple of day potentially. So I know the impulses to bring all the games with you all the time, to be ready at a moment's notice. But in truth, three, three is a good number, I found.
Speaker 3:
[12:24] It is a problem we have.
Speaker 2:
[12:25] I have more than three in here.
Speaker 3:
[12:26] As gamers. When I lived in Miami and I went to game night, I would always bring two full all-play bags of games for a five-hour game night. I'd break it back. I'm like, why did I take 15 games? I knew I wasn't going to play 15 games. It wasn't even possible to play 15 games, but I wanted the opportunity to just pull from that selection. So there is a bit of that. Usually when I go to a convention, I will take an all-play bag and push it up and put it in my suitcase, along with a pile of games. Like Julie says, I'll have two suitcases, usually full of games, and then I could put them in there. But I'm starting to transition out of that and use the smaller games because they're easier to carry. So I have this, my cavern hold up with the smaller games, and because most of the time I'm at a convention where there are games around. But Eric is talking about, I think, going out into the wild where there are no board games.
Speaker 2:
[13:28] Yes.
Speaker 1:
[13:29] I meant it for both. I did.
Speaker 3:
[13:31] We know you're just overly prepared. What can we do?
Speaker 2:
[13:36] I went and looked at, I have my bag with me and I think I have six Button Shy titles in the bottom of the bag, which I didn't realize I had that many in the bottom of the bag, and I think I have even more solo games. I just didn't dig far enough.
Speaker 1:
[13:49] They're small and portable. It makes sense.
Speaker 3:
[13:52] Why Button Shy, Eric?
Speaker 1:
[13:53] It's always good to have a couple.
Speaker 3:
[13:54] Do you feel like that's... The reason I'm asking is because there are some Button Shy games I think are absolutely fantastic. I think most of them are fine or not great, but there are some amazing ones. So I'm not putting them down. But do you feel like when traveling, you can get caught up in taking more... You're like, ooh, I could take 10 Button Shy games. But you could also take five card games or one board game. You're like, yes, but I want more. Do you feel like that's an issue?
Speaker 2:
[14:26] I feel like, I mean, that's a little bit the case, but especially with the wallet games, I like that they can get tucked into an area of the suitcase or the bag that doesn't normally hold a game. If you have something in its box, you need a box-shaped space, but the wallet can slip in between things. I apparently just keep slipping games into the bag and then forget to take them out. So I just have acquired a whole stack of them. But it allows me to use the bag for its intended purpose with all of the other travel stuff in it. But also, I've got this sly little pocket of games that I can pull out and have a full game experience with a small little package.
Speaker 1:
[15:06] See, but here's the thing. If you keep forgetting that they're in there, then they're not getting played, which means I'd rather have one, like I'd rather have a, I don't know, a wine cellar or a mountain goats size game that I know I'm going to play because I know who I'm going out with, and I know it's going to be well-received, and I've played it recently, so I can immediately pull it out and do the teach, which you can for any of the button shot games, but still versus having a whole bunch of them, or even an oink size game where, if they're not going to get played, so it's funny because I have a bunch of them, but I always go back to Deep Sea Adventure and Trica. Those are the two that I enjoy the most, so teaching them is effortless, and whether I think people like it or not, people like not having to do the teach. If you can do the teach, they're going to be willing to go along with the game a lot more likely, regardless.
Speaker 2:
[16:11] Well, I think that's part of... If you are trying to bring these games out into areas that don't normally have them, I think making it as seamless as possible to jump into a game when you're standing around and like, hey, we got 15 minutes till our food arrives at a restaurant. Do you want to play a game? If you have to pull out a whole stack of wallet games and go, all right, which I have these three, these are sort of like civilization building, this one's a little bit like a tiling. No, you want to say, hey, you want to play a game? Boom, we're going to do this. You said you've had success with that, Julie. I think when we were discussing this.
Speaker 1:
[16:44] I don't have to say, do you want to play a game? I just pull it out and I start opening it up.
Speaker 2:
[16:47] Start teaching.
Speaker 1:
[16:48] I start teaching because Teacher Julie is a real thing. The Teacher Julie persona lives on, despite having not been Teacher Julie for a while.
Speaker 3:
[16:57] You only need one person to say yes.
Speaker 2:
[16:59] Yeah. I guess that's true. If you just have the moment, you know you've got the time, you start dealing out cards. Here, are you in? Good. All right. Here's how you play. Yeah. There's very little chance to say, I don't know if we want to pull out a game right now. Okay. I have a game plan. I like it. The reason I'm asking is that we're about to go on a school field trip. My wife and I are on a shadow tour to go with the children's music department. We're going to Barcelona next week. There are families along on this shadow tour, and I want to make some friends and maybe play a couple of games. So I'm trying to be ready to pounce when the opportunity presents itself, like we're on the bus or we're waiting for the bus, or we have some time in the lobby of the hotel before the bus shows up. I would like to be able to say, hey, you want to play something and have it be somewhat successful and maybe make some friends. That's my goal.
Speaker 3:
[17:57] Sure. But I think if you're going to do that, then you want to make sure that all the games you have are bangers. You don't want more okay games. You want every game to be absolutely amazing, so why not bring fewer but better?
Speaker 1:
[18:13] Yes. Hmm.
Speaker 2:
[18:15] You make an element of sense.
Speaker 3:
[18:17] I mean, I wouldn't follow my own advice there. I would bring games I never tried before and be like, hey, it could be good, it could be bad. My wife's like, why do you just bring games?
Speaker 2:
[18:25] I mean, that's my usual MO.
Speaker 3:
[18:26] It's a terrible, I don't follow my own advice.
Speaker 1:
[18:31] Not in those situations, which is because that's what led us in Greece last year to play Ito every single night, because every other game that I brought, people were like, because I was trying new things. And they were like, let's go back to Ito. And we played Ito for almost two weeks straight every evening, which was great. But also, it would have been nice if I had thought about that and maybe brought a couple other things that I knew were going to hit.
Speaker 2:
[19:01] Yeah. I guess I need to find the mix. Maybe bring a couple that I don't quite know about, that I would like to get played for testing out purposes. But I need to bring, as Tom says, the bangers to make sure there's always something to fall back on. Oh, this isn't working? Let's play Mountain Goats.
Speaker 3:
[19:18] Yeah. Yeah. So are you concerned, traveler, and with your group of stalker parents? I don't know if you've seen the movies, Eric, but these are the people who show up in the bus at the beginning of the movie, and then all the high jinks happen, and then they show up at the end of the movie. They're like not there for 90 percent of the movie. So during that 90 percent where you're off screen, is the size of the game an issue? I mean, as in playing space.
Speaker 2:
[19:48] Oh, yeah. I mean, certainly. Because you're going to be playing in spaces that aren't designed for playing games, a cocktail table, a lounge table in a hotel lobby, something like that. So yeah, you want stuff with small footprints, which is one of the reasons why the wallet games work well, or the Paco games games work well, because they're designed to have a very small footprint.
Speaker 1:
[20:11] Yeah. But there's so many. We've already talked, I mean, so I'll play, does a great job of it. Arcane Wonders does a great job of it. 25th century, a lot of their smaller games don't take an oink. There's plenty of choices, I feel like out there. There are. It's picking the, having a deck of cards. There's plenty of options. It's just finding the ones that bring you joy. I think for me, that's really the trick. It's not, what is the best one? It's what ones do you play that you really like, and so therefore, you can teach and have enthusiasm, and then also, if nobody else is feeling it, pick it up really quickly and move on.
Speaker 2:
[21:00] That's true. You have to always be able to bail.
Speaker 1:
[21:03] I mean, for me, what is it? The, obviously, Mountain Goats, but it only, it doesn't have the, if you have a lot of people, that's a hard thing. I think Bonanza was my, is my oldest old school go-to. Oh. And Guillotine. But you can, you know, how many people can you accommodate? But then they all, they're cards. So you can pick them up, put them away really fast, move on with your life.
Speaker 3:
[21:27] Also remember, every game you take, Eric, you have less room for souvenirs to bring back.
Speaker 2:
[21:32] That is true. And maybe that's a plus.
Speaker 1:
[21:33] I was gonna say, at this point in our lives, probably good.
Speaker 2:
[21:36] I don't know if we have room for that on the way back. Sorry, we can't get that.
Speaker 1:
[21:39] You'll be fine.
Speaker 2:
[21:40] Trinket. Yeah, that's a good plan. Have you ever lost any games in these to-go bags? We sort of touched on that. They go in and they don't come out.
Speaker 3:
[21:50] Well, that's you.
Speaker 2:
[21:51] And have you forgotten where they were?
Speaker 3:
[21:52] To me, one of the comebacks is to open it up and put the games back where they go. But I will say, if you move stuff, particularly if you're like, I'm going to take the rules out and read them, or put them in a different spot, which is why I'm not a big fan again of the quiver, because it requires you to dismantle games often. And then I feel like it's easy to miss pieces when putting them back or put the wrong rules in the wrong box, which is the worst. Like, where are these rules? Well, I'm never going to find them. So let's just burn the whole collection down. We can't do anything about it.
Speaker 2:
[22:25] Well, the stuff that went in my quiver, the boxes are gone. They just live in the quiver. It wasn't a temporary living situation. That's where they go now.
Speaker 3:
[22:35] So how do you switch them out then, Eric?
Speaker 2:
[22:37] I can't. I have to buy another quiver.
Speaker 1:
[22:39] There was a design flaw.
Speaker 3:
[22:41] Wait a minute.
Speaker 2:
[22:42] At the time, I was trying to consolidate, and I was like, everything can go in this quiver.
Speaker 3:
[22:45] Well, to be fair, this is what we do for The Dice Tower. We have those card cases, and we put the games in them. And if I ever get rid of a game, I then have to sell it in a Ziploc bag.
Speaker 2:
[22:57] Right, we touched on this last time.
Speaker 1:
[22:58] So, you go to Michael's, you get yourself some photo boxes, you transfer them to the photo boxes at home.
Speaker 3:
[23:05] Yeah, but then it can go in and out of the quiver. Yep. I'm just saying, what if a new game comes out, and you really want to put in a quiver? There's no space. What do you do?
Speaker 2:
[23:13] I need another quiver.
Speaker 3:
[23:14] No, that's not the solution. You're like the person who gets another storage unit. Don't.
Speaker 1:
[23:21] Help us help you.
Speaker 2:
[23:22] I realize mistakes were made. I don't have a solution right now.
Speaker 3:
[23:27] I'll tell you the solution here.
Speaker 2:
[23:32] The thing is, the quiver is a storage device for me. It's a storage container. It is not a travel bag because I've never taken it anywhere.
Speaker 3:
[23:40] Wait, what? That's the whole point of it.
Speaker 1:
[23:43] It really is.
Speaker 2:
[23:44] I know.
Speaker 3:
[23:44] You can buy a cardboard box to hold stuff.
Speaker 2:
[23:48] Yeah, but that doesn't look as nice.
Speaker 3:
[23:50] You can buy a nice cardboard box.
Speaker 1:
[23:53] You can wrap it up with wrapping paper. You can bedazzle it.
Speaker 3:
[23:58] All right. Well, folks, Eric needs help.
Speaker 2:
[24:01] This is a totally different thing.
Speaker 1:
[24:02] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[24:02] As Eric needs help, that's what we've learned today.
Speaker 3:
[24:05] Also, while you're on your trip, Eric, tell us what games you bought.
Speaker 2:
[24:08] Yes, I will. There are game stores in Barcelona. I've already found them in a Google Doc.
Speaker 1:
[24:14] Excellent.
Speaker 2:
[24:17] And now, another Tale of Boardgaming Horror. Oh, my, that's horrific. Gather around, children. There's a local group of gamers I know through another hobby, and we've gamed a bunch of times. I have the largest collection of the group by far, so I usually end up bringing some games to play, though I strongly encourage playing games they own, which I don't own or haven't played. One evening, we were set to get together and play. One couple hosted, and we were to be five players in total. Then one half of the couple, we'll call him Todd, said he had a prior engagement and would not arrive home until 10 p.m. Our start time was 7 p.m., so we figured we'd play a four-player first, then a five-player later. First, we played artistry owned by the hosting couple. We had a great time, and when we finished up, we felt there wasn't enough time to start another game before Todd returned, so we hung out for a bit. Time passed, and after 10 p.m., we messaged Todd with no response. At 10:58 p.m., Todd walks in, and the loss of an hour was a bit irksome, as we could have played another game while we waited. I figured, no worries, we can still play Ra, the 25th Century Pharaoh edition, since it's pretty quick and simple to teach. I was about three quarters of the way through the teach, something I enjoy doing, when I looked up at Todd and froze. He was in the process of opening a new bag of cheese puffs, and started offering them to others at the table. I locked eyes with him and blurted out, dude, really? He asked what was wrong. I said, are you really gonna eat Cheetos right now when we're about to play? He responded with a, sure, why? What's the issue? I flat out said, those things are just as bad and messy as Doritos. So if you're gonna eat those while we play a game, I'm just gonna pack this up and we can play something else. I don't want that stuff getting all over my game. He seemed taken aback by this and asked if I was serious. I was. He agreed to wash his hands before he sat at the table. We played the game without any food related incidents. However, I was the subject of a few jokes and jabs about being protective over my games. I left later on a bit upset about it all, since these are all seasoned gamers and absolutely should know better. It's never been an issue before, but the way they reacted made me think perhaps they feel I was overreacting. I didn't raise my voice at all, but I was firm in my tone. Am I the jerk here? I honestly don't think I am. I want to preserve the things I love and spend hard-earned money on, but who knows? Maybe I'm just too overprotective or something. Thoughts? I don't know whether I should laugh at that. This seems more like a cry for help than a tale of horror.
Speaker 1:
[27:29] And ask for validation?
Speaker 3:
[27:30] A couple of things here, before we get into what happened here, I definitely think that you need to set some standards about the coming on time thing. If Todd is, I don't know if this is the only time that Todd has come late, but I just say we're going to start a game at this time. If you're not there, I don't know what else we can do. Because if you make everyone else wait, here Todd made everyone wait an hour, that's super rude and I would have just started a game. I'd be like, well, you said 10 and you weren't here at 10. You can't even be like, I was at 10.05.
Speaker 2:
[28:08] Also, they were done at like nine and they waited for Todd to arrive at 10 and then he didn't arrive. So they really lost like two hours.
Speaker 3:
[28:15] Yeah. Again, not the end of the world, but that would be a one-time occurrence for me. I'd be like, well, next time we're starting games up, you come when you come. I feel bad, but even at our game night, we start a game, someone shows up and I'm not like, oh, we have to restart. No, you're just gonna have to hang out till more people show up or till we start the next game.
Speaker 2:
[28:36] Also 10 p.m. arrival? What? Don't these people sleep?
Speaker 3:
[28:40] That was the other thing I was gonna mention. I was like, he's like, well, we started a game at 10.58. I'm like, wait, what? At 9.30, I'm like, well.
Speaker 2:
[28:49] It's time for everybody to go now.
Speaker 3:
[28:51] No more game time. Right.
Speaker 1:
[28:54] I agree. There was a lot of. So what's interesting is clearly Todd is doing what Todd enjoys and not worrying about everybody else. So that's indicative of you do what you're comfortable with. I think for me, yes, I think that not wanting food on your games is completely understandable. But setting a boundary, how you set a boundary. So you said you didn't yell, but from the, now again, this is just what we've been given, saying dude, really, as your start and are you going to, is attacking and attacking is still going to put somebody on the defensive and then you're going to have bad feelings. Setting a boundary is, hi, I see that you're eating Cheetos, Doritos, some other food that's going to get schmooch all over my, whatever it is. I am not comfortable playing my game and having people get food on it. So if you would like to eat that, I'm going to put this way and we can play something else. That is a non confrontational way of saying the same thing, but setting a boundary that lets people know. Without, so then it's, you know, it's on them to say, well, I don't want to, I'm going to keep eating. That's fine. And you just pack it up. It's not a big deal. Anything that sets up a, why are you doing that? Is going to put them on the, it's going to open the invitation to be put somebody on the defensive. And then you get the other people jumping in and making jokes. Also, if they're saying up this late, I'm assuming they're younger.
Speaker 2:
[30:38] Maybe. They must be.
Speaker 1:
[30:41] And so maybe they're experienced gamers, but maybe not, you know, we're all old and grizzled and stuff. And we've had these, these, have dealt with these confrontations now, I think, for some time. And I think you just, you just know, like you're, you can be super comfortable with the, hey, I don't, I don't want that with my game. It's cool. Just, I'm going to pack it up. You do what you want. And not a big deal.
Speaker 3:
[31:11] As someone who has the same issue here, Todd, with the, as you, with the thing, Todd says, you know, I didn't raise my voice, but I was firm in my tone. But I bet, because I'm the same way, that I feel I was nicer. And people are like, you weren't. You know, you're like, I was just, you know, being firm and say my opinion. People are like, you, you yelled at me. I'm like, I, I didn't yell. But depending on who you are, and I'm a big guy, and, and all people be like, oh, you, you really, you know, you scared me a bit. I was like, what? I was just saying, I didn't like it. So you have to take that into account. I also, I think I, I wouldn't have made it a either or. I've been like, hey, you're going to eat those. Could, could you eat them over there, away from the game while I'm setting up? And, you know, and then, sorry, I wouldn't have said I'm putting the game away. I would have just been like, could, could we eat those and not have them around the game? I feel like that would have been, everyone, everyone's happy. Stand over there and eat the Cheetos.
Speaker 2:
[32:10] You could stand in the Cheeto quarantine zone. Right.
Speaker 3:
[32:13] And also if everyone else is making a joke about it, I think at this point, you want to get in good with the group, you laugh about it and join in a bit.
Speaker 2:
[32:19] Yeah. I think a little bit of self-effacingness can be helpful here. If you are setting these boundaries, you can be like, I know I'm a little, I'm a little picky about the game. This is like a deluxe edition. I'm kind of picky about it. Is it possible for you to eat over there? Because I just don't want the cheeto dust gets everywhere.
Speaker 1:
[32:39] That's funny. I don't do that. I don't do any of that at all. I'm like, look, we don't have to play it. I'm so happy to play somebody else's game and eat Doritos with you there and see how you feel at the end of it.
Speaker 2:
[32:55] We can play Uno by the way.
Speaker 3:
[32:57] Also, as a side note, don't be eating cheese puffs at a board game thing. Come on.
Speaker 1:
[33:01] I agree. I feel like enough. There are videos out there. There's polydemning.
Speaker 3:
[33:09] I'm starting to think though that the real culprit of board gaming isn't cheese puffs and Doritos and whatever because they're so obvious. I think it is grease. Grease is the thing people don't notice. That's not even a big thing. You won't notice it till later.
Speaker 2:
[33:25] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[33:26] Sometimes you'll be like, wait, what's this on my board?
Speaker 2:
[33:31] We were eating pizza and yeah.
Speaker 1:
[33:33] Or I know it's that card because there's a thumbprint smudge on the back of it.
Speaker 3:
[33:38] Also, everyone at the end of the night will be taking fingerprints.
Speaker 1:
[33:45] That'll go over well. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[33:49] That's a good tone to set for everyone. You can join the group, but you have to be cataloged first.
Speaker 1:
[33:55] So I think at the end of the day, we don't think you're being overprotective. We are suggesting you think about your approach in that kind of situation so that you're ready for next time.
Speaker 2:
[34:10] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[34:10] You don't want to end up with pristine games and nobody to play them with.
Speaker 1:
[34:15] Very true.
Speaker 2:
[34:17] I like it. That was sage. That was very sage.
Speaker 3:
[34:19] We should move on before we mess that up. It was fortune cookie.
Speaker 2:
[34:27] They say that every rose has its thorn, but not every rose has a hula hoop. All right, who wants to go first talking about games?
Speaker 3:
[34:35] I do.
Speaker 2:
[34:36] Woo, do it.
Speaker 3:
[34:38] Alrighty, so the first game I wanna talk about is one I did not know much about. It showed up in the mail, and it's called Bare Bones, which is kind of a weird name for a game. It's from West Coast Bias Games, which automatically, I'm like, no, East Coast is better. But I don't even know it. Although, now I live in the West Coast of Florida, so that could mean anything.
Speaker 2:
[35:03] Yeah, sure.
Speaker 3:
[35:04] But anyhow, this is a game that looks like, if you remember the old days, Eric, of going to the supermarket in the No Frills aisle. Did you ever see one of those when you were a kid?
Speaker 2:
[35:15] Are these like the generic brands?
Speaker 3:
[35:17] Yeah, well, it was before generic. You would go into the aisle, and everything was just white labeled, and it was just like, corn and peas. So yeah, this was a thing, and it was like, oh, this is where the cheap people shop. I knew that because we were in that aisle.
Speaker 2:
[35:34] Okay, wow.
Speaker 3:
[35:36] But anyway, this game looks very much like that. It's called Bare Bones, and it shows seven dice on the cover, not even with pips on them. The game is a game that has a bunch of dice in it, and the dice have different numbers on them. So, for example, the blue die, the sides might be 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, something like that, while the black die is 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6. So, each of these dice comes with some cards, and the cards show you the six faces of the dice. There's also a white die that has numbers on it that I believe go from 2 to 5, like 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, and they have a circle around them, and this matters. You get a deck of cards, so you'll get four white cards, you get a pink and three blue cards, and then you get a few other cards. You shuffle them together, and it's like a deck building game. You draw five cards. And on each turn of the game, and there is a set number of terms, I want to say it's like 14 terms or something, you play all the cards from your hand. Each card that gives you a die, you take those dice, and you will then roll those dice. The numbered dice is how many points you get. You marked it down on the score sheet. The white dice, because they have a circle around them, is money that you get that you can buy other cards with. And so, just like a typical deck building game, there are action cards out there that you can buy to stick in your deck that might give you re-rolls, or might say if you roll two of the same color, you can double those points or what have you. So that's the game. It really is a bare bones deck builder with dice. And I'm amused by it. It's a bit lucky, obviously, but there are ways to mitigate that with things. It does have a couple strange rules. One strange rule is if Eric, on his turn, plays two blue cards, for example, I give him two blue dice. Exactly two, no more, no less. Then on my turn, I can play a blue card for free and draw another card to take its place.
Speaker 2:
[37:35] Okay.
Speaker 3:
[37:37] I don't know the reasoning behind that rule. Like, oh, I saw Eric buy a lot of blue cards. I guess I'll buy one so that if he ever plays two and I have it in my hand, free card. But it just seems a little odd, right? It's just an odd rule. Another odd rule is all the action cards have dots, orange dots on them, one, two or three orange dots on them. And the rule is you can play as many action cards in your turn as you want, but you can't play more than five dots worth.
Speaker 2:
[38:04] Ah, so the more powerful actions are more expensive?
Speaker 3:
[38:07] Sure, but it feels clunky, right? It just doesn't feel smooth that way that plays. But I still was amused by it. This is a hula hoop for me. I was interested in it. I bare bones sometimes is fine. There's no theme at all here, just dice and cards, but I like chucking dice. And it's fun to be like, ooh, I want to buy the green die, because the green die has an automatic re-roll if you want. Or I want the red dice, because it says if you have two or more red dice, you get to draw a card. And then, you know, I want to save enough money to get the black dice, because 555-666 is the best you can get for points.
Speaker 2:
[38:48] Yeah, get points.
Speaker 3:
[38:51] Yeah, so it's an enjoyable game. It has some issues and stuff, but I liked it a lot.
Speaker 2:
[38:57] Hmm, neat. Bare bones.
Speaker 3:
[38:59] Now, on the flip side, Coming of Age is a game that I was looking forward to considerably, because it's one of those themes that always attracts me in a game, this whole live your life. And Coming of Age is going from a child to an adult. And you're like, at the beginning, you need help from your parents, but at the end, your parents no longer help you, which by the way is not true. I just paid off a car bill for my adult. Anyway, that's at the point. She was so sad. She's like, well, how was I supposed to know it was good? I was like, I'll get you the money. Anyway, so this is from Danny Garcia and Ludenova Games, and it was at Essin, but it sold out very quickly. Did you get a copy, Eric?
Speaker 2:
[39:52] I did. I got in line and got one of those copies, yes.
Speaker 3:
[39:55] Did you already review this on the show and I just don't remember?
Speaker 2:
[39:57] I don't know if I've talked about it here, but yeah, I played it at E-West just a few weeks ago, and I've bought it a lot actually, but yes, continue.
Speaker 3:
[40:08] Well, then you can jump in here. So this game is a game about growing up from elementary school to high school, and it is a game in which you are placing workers, which are dice. And unfortunately, the game's rulebook is not particularly good. It's overly verbose. Sometimes that can hurt a rulebook, and I think it does in this case. Someone printed out on the internet what the board gave you, like, here's a summary of what you can do. And I was like, holy cow, it's so much easier to understand. Also, the game really leans into the theme, which is both very good, but sometimes tricky, because it's using these words for things. And you're like, wait, what? Yeah. Oh, how does that work? But I do love the theming of this game, because at the beginning of the game, there's four locations you can go to school, your home, the pizzeria and the arcade, I think, so four spots you can go to. And then as you get older, more and more locations open up, because you're allowed to go farther away from home. It's obviously not set in the 80s, because when you were eight, you could go, you know, you have a 10-mile radius. But facts. So you go to these spots and then you will take actions and you become friends with other kids in the neighborhood or deepen your friendship with them, which basically means moving them down tracks to get points and things. And you're also, your moods are going to be swinging up and back and forth, and you get more and more moods as time goes by. At the beginning of the game, you don't care about popularity. That's not a thing in elementary school. But when you get to high school, that's something that matters more. Or maybe it doesn't. You could go to the other end of the track. You have frustrations you have to deal with and get rid of. And I'm talking a lot in terms of theme, because I think the theme in this game is fantastic. I think it's a fun theme. It's the artwork is cool. Your board is a giant head. Everything is happening in your head space. You can become friends with other players. And the main reason you want to become friends with other players is because you can then mimic their personality traits. Eric's an optimist all the time. I hang out with Eric a lot, so I'm an optimist too. And I think all that stuff works good. Game wise, it's also very good, although I will say the game where I said I'd become friends with Eric and copy his traits, that's the main way of player interaction. There's not a ton of player interaction other than that. You are just kind of doing your own thing, moving around the board, collecting cubes, moving up tracks, moving back and forth. There's a little bit of fiddliness to all the different pieces, and it's a bit cerebral because there is a ton of iconography. I think once you understand the iconography, get past the rules, there's a very deep, cool game in there. I don't believe I would play it with more than three, because I don't think the fourth player adds anything other than time. It's also one of those kind of games where most of the actions are simultaneous, so everyone's doing stuff at the same time, but that also, I don't know how you guys feel about that. Every once in a while, I'm playing a simultaneous game with someone, I'm like, oh, you're winning. Oh, okay. I don't really know how you're winning or what you've done to win, and I'm just assuming you've scored and done stuff correctly. You know what I mean? That happens in these simultaneous games sometimes. You're not accusing your friends of cheating or anything like that, you're just like, I wish I knew.
Speaker 2:
[43:28] You don't have a sense of what they're doing, yeah.
Speaker 3:
[43:30] Yeah, but you could take turns doing stuff, but that would also dramatically lengthen the game.
Speaker 1:
[43:35] But to your point, there's so much iconography that it's not even necessarily an intentional cheating. It's also not being able to clarify whether you're doing things correctly or they are.
Speaker 2:
[43:49] Right. You can't catch any mistakes if everybody's doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:
[43:52] Correct.
Speaker 3:
[43:54] Sure. And also, sometimes you're like, okay, I get two points here, and then, oh, wait, did I take those two points?
Speaker 1:
[44:01] Right.
Speaker 3:
[44:01] I don't remember. That happens a lot. That being said, I really like, I think the production is great. I think the theme is really strong, at least for me it was. I read some people said there's no theme, but I thought the theme really matched what you were doing. And it's kind of like a nice engine builder of sorts. So other than the max of three people for me, I think, I thought it was a lot of fun. This is a rose for me. What did you think of it, Eric?
Speaker 2:
[44:28] I was, so I was a little worried as you were leading in and giving a lot of positives, but hedging your bets. I'm glad you liked it. I really, I agree that there are elements of this where the theme is really cool. I like where you can spend frustration to do things. You get these little tokens that are like this, I'm mad about this, but it allows me more flexibility on the board. But then I have to overcome that frustration by like sliding one of those sliders all the way to the right and then all the way to the left again to get points. And I can't spend more frustration until I've cleared that. So there's a lot of mechanical goings on in order to make these thematic elements work. But I do like the flow of it. I like the expansion of the board. I like how it becomes more complex as you go. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. I'm glad I grabbed it. That's Coming of Age. Julie, we've been talking a lot. What have you been playing?
Speaker 1:
[45:24] Well, I'm sticking with a small portable games theme because I'm gearing up for a lot of heavier games in the next couple of weeks. But I'm going to talk about games that I would still throw in my bag and bring out to play in small groups. The first one is Jewel Box. Both of these were still from Dice Tower West when I played them. So Jewel Box is from Lovemore Games, which is a small new company. It's for one to four players and it's very light. It's one for bringing in people more of a gateway game. Very simple. You are rolling a die and then you're collecting the beetle that is on the corresponding space, one through five, six is a wild. The beetles that are out, you're placing them randomly. And then there's six different suits or types of beetles, and they score in different ways. The thing is, you have a four-year in front of you, you're building a four by four grid and you must place each beetle orthogonal to a previously placed beetle. Except for the first, of course. So that's it. That's the whole game. It's light. It's pretty thematically. I'm this apparently beetles are the new mushrooms because I've seen several now, but there is beautiful art. And then you have three tools that you can use. The magnifying glass lets you look at a face down one or take one of the ones from the board. And the foursips let you swap two beetles already in your grid to maximize, or if not, you gain points for those if you don't use them at the end of the game. And once everybody has their four by four grid, you score based on those six suits. It's clean, it's light. I was not at all looking for it, but walking through the vendor hall, the pretty, the pretty caught my eye. It's very pretty. But also playing it, it's like for, again, for a very light bringing people in, playing it, it was fantastic. It's for one to four players, but there is a five and six player expansion as well. So that is Jewel Box. And the other one was, what did I, what did I write? Cinnabelle, oh, that's right. Which I played with Tom and he did a lovely teach. So that was, it's designed by Elizabeth Hargrave and has a lot, funny enough, very similar vibes, but a little bit more complexity to the game. You're walking along the beach and collecting seashells to put in your bag. Your bag being a grid inside a board and how you're placing them. Again, I believe there's six different suits. Yes. The snails, the echidna, derms, bivalves, seraths, coquinas, and shark's teeth. And based on how you place them is how you score. But in that one, you're also walking along the beach. So it almost has a very long-term. What do I want to say? It reminded me of Kraftwagen where you can jump ahead to get what you want because you know if you don't, somebody else might take the things that you want. But the further out you jump ahead, the longer it is until your turn because whoever is last in the line order is the person who plays next. So if you're really lucky, there's some very greedy people who want to jump ahead and get their thing and then you get two turns in a row potentially. But then you have to take whatever is left right now on the board. Every once in a while, a wave comes. I very much enjoyed making sound effects. I don't think Tom enjoyed it as much.
Speaker 3:
[49:41] No, no, no. I'm actually a big fan of that.
Speaker 1:
[49:46] The wave sound effects? Great. Note it.
Speaker 3:
[49:49] Yeah.
Speaker 1:
[49:50] Where more items wash up on the beach, and that's how you replace in each of the different sections. As you get to one end of the board and then you walk along the other end of the beach, there's also some other mechanics of placement. That's it. Again, on the lighter side, excellent for welcoming people into the board game world, and beautiful, and fun, and light, and very delightful. And we had great conversation while we were playing, but there was also enough puzzling, trying to fit things into your place that there's strategy and thematically very enjoyable. So those were my two games. Yeah.
Speaker 2:
[50:35] Where did the Santa Belle fall on your rose thorn? I'm assuming a rose.
Speaker 1:
[50:38] Oh, Santa Belle was a rose.
Speaker 2:
[50:39] Yeah. Yeah. I really like how each of the zones on the beach have multiple spaces, and not only can you jump ahead to claim something, but the farther forward you go, the more tiles you get to grab. And so you can choose to move ahead, but only grab a couple of tiles, and then be farther back in the turn order as people claim the farther forward spaces. Those are some interesting new choices that you don't usually see in these styles of games.
Speaker 1:
[51:06] Correct.
Speaker 2:
[51:08] Neat, neat! All right. So the first game I want to talk about is For Northwood, with an exclamation point. This is a solo, exact bid trick-taking game.
Speaker 3:
[51:21] That's impossible.
Speaker 2:
[51:22] That's impossible! How could you do that? The theme is that you are trying to have conversations with various forest leaders. These are all adorable animals. The basic deck is one through eight in four suits. Those are the conversation cards, and then the face cards, but it's more than just Jack, Queen, King. There's actually a whole bunch in here, and they all have special abilities. There's a basic set up that you can do, but in the main game, you're going to get four of these rulers in front of you as helpers, and then others, eight of them, are going to be placed along the top of your play space on slots, and those slots have specific numbers on them, zero through seven. That is the number of tricks you need to win in order to- or number, yeah, number of tricks you need to win, or conversations, not conversations, points, statements you need to win. This is one of those that has a bunch of names for what everything is, kind of like Coming of Age. But it kind of works here because you're having these conversations with these rulers, that is one interaction, multiple tricks that you're going to be doing. So you look at your hand, you will choose one of these rulers to interact with, and so you're saying, I'm going to win five tricks in this interaction, and then you flip up a card. That is the statement that the ruler has made to you. You have to follow suit if you can, but if not, you can play anything you want, and the rulers have a suit as well. So you either make a better point, a higher number in the lead suit, and thereby win the trick. Or you change the subject to the subject that is the favored subject of the ruler, which is the trump suit, and make a point there and you'll score that one. Or you just slough off a card and you're not going to win that argument. And there are all of these rulers you have in front of you. You have four active. You can use before any one trick. You can activate one of these rulers, which has you swapping cards, drawing cards, doing manipulation. You can even move which ruler you're talking to with some of these. It was a fun one to play with. But you can trigger one of these before you see what the card is. But then once a card's flipped up, you have to interact with it. And you see if you get exactly the number, it's not just meet the bid, it's get exactly that number of tricks. So there are times that I've got my five tricks. Now I need to figure out how to get out and get rid of my cards because the round doesn't end until you are either out of cards or the deck is empty. And so there's manipulations. You can draw more cards with some of these abilities. You can swap stuff. You can get rid of all the cards in the ruler's suit with some of these abilities. But you have to trigger them in the right time and make sure that somebody runs out of cards when you have the exact number of tricks. And if you manage to get that, you can now use that ruler in future rounds as a one-time substitute ally. You get to use them for one round and then they go away. And you'll score a certain number of points based on where they are in the line. The goal is to reach a certain point threshold. There are scenarios in there. There's other ways to play, or you can just play randomly. It is... I was surprised at how well it worked. It's an interesting puzzle. My only complaint is that often the rounds come down to the last card that gets flipped. And if you aren't able to manipulate into knowing that you're going to win or lose that trick, like maybe I know I only have a one in the non-Trump suit in my hand, so I know I'm gonna lose this one. So that's good, if that's what I was going for. Or I have a really good Trump card in my hand, I should be able to win the next card. But if I'm anywhere in the middle, there's a big question mark as to whether I'm winning that next trick or not. And that's not good when you're trying to exact bid something. So it can get a little hairy at the end of rounds. But I do enjoy the puzzle and I'm surprised that they were able to make a solo exact bid trick taking game in for Northwood. This was a hula hoop for me. And it's cute. It's adorable. And it comes in a tuck box that works. It's actually a slideable tuck box where the lid lifts off vertically so it feels solid. You don't have to split the cards into multiple piles. You just stick the whole thing in there and it's like, it's better than a clamshell box. It slides together. I really like it.
Speaker 1:
[55:42] Okay.
Speaker 2:
[55:43] And they're plastic cards as well.
Speaker 3:
[55:44] I'm going to have to beat this at some point.
Speaker 2:
[55:46] It was good.
Speaker 1:
[55:46] Yeah.
Speaker 3:
[55:47] I'm going to have to play it.
Speaker 1:
[55:48] Same.
Speaker 2:
[55:50] Second is a game I got to try at Dice Tower West. Capstone Games was showing this off. I don't think this is quite out yet, but it's very close. The game is called Rising Cultures. This is a two-player civilization game. It was published with another publisher at first, I think last year and Capstone is bringing it over. Two players, you play a faction. So you have a specific faction deck that you'll be working with, with some special powers and stuff. So I think I was the Persians and my opponent was the Romans. When we played this, you have a little player mat. The cards can be used in multiple ways. Lots of ways. I think they have like little icons. You can turn them on, you can flip them upside down. They have different icons. They can be used as a building, but you're going to have to pay resources for that building. They can be used as resources. They have icons at the top. You can sort of slot that in and you'll have access to those resources for future building opportunities. You can use it as a civilization. There's an icon on, I think, the right side of the card and it docks onto the left side of your card. So icons sort of line up and get you some powers for upgrading your civilization. You can also use it as military. You flip the thing over and it's got a military icon and it docks onto the right side of your board. So each round of the game, you're going to have four cards in your hand and you're going to get to interact with three of them. So you can do any of those things. It's a little seven wonders like, what do you do with these cards? It can be used in lots of different ways. And so I might dock the first card as resources and then it's my opponent's turn and then I will build this building because I have enough resources to build it. So I put that up there, that gets me some sort of bonuses or scoring opportunities. And then the third one I'm going to use as a, as a military because we're fighting over some provinces over on the side of the board. And then the last card gets put on the bottom of my deck. And I might see it by the end of the game, maybe not. And then we fight over the provinces. They're looking for a certain number of sword icons or shield icons. And somebody wins that province, but they have to discard a military card. If every time I build a building, I have an opportunity to dock, take one of my resource cards and turn it into a civilization upgrade card, which gets me more abilities and maybe lets me flip my board over and offer more powers and stuff and make things better. And then you work your way through multiple rounds of play. It's like seven, six or seven rounds, which has you working most of the way through that seven rounds. And has you working most of the way through the deck. Tom's like, get over with, I'm ready. I did enjoy this game. This was a rose for me. This does a lot of the things I enjoy about games. It's that engine building, tough decisions about what to do with your cards. The one restriction is that you've got this faction, and so you have a strength for that faction, and you sort of need to play toward that strength of the faction, because your opponent is going to be doing the strength of their faction. But if you want to try and stop them being strong, like the Romans were really good at military. If I wanted to win anything in military, I had to push really hard because it was easy for the Roman player to do so. So I have to make that decision of, do I push really hard against what my strength is in order to rob the other player of points? But it is a two player game, so maybe robbing them of a couple of provinces over the course of the game is a good idea and prevents them from running away with it. I liked the choices, would enjoy trying out more factions in rising cultures.
Speaker 3:
[59:27] Yeah, it's... I don't actually have a strong opinion on this game yet. I've only played it once. And I feel like once is not enough to even get a grasp on this, because the game has a lot of iconography that... I mean, every card you have, you have your own reference guide for all your stuff. And that's fine, but you also don't know what your opponent has.
Speaker 2:
[59:51] Right.
Speaker 3:
[59:52] And you kind of need to know what's in your deck. So, for example, I was playing the Persians and I got to an ability. I'm like, I could play as many leaders as I want. Or one of each color, anyway.
Speaker 2:
[60:03] Yeah, one of each color.
Speaker 3:
[60:04] That's awesome. But I had already used all my leaders for other things.
Speaker 2:
[60:08] Yeah, or they're on the bottom of your deck.
Speaker 3:
[60:11] So knowing that I think I would like to go back in and play it again, I wasn't overly wowed by it, but I didn't dislike it either. I think it's one of those games definitely you need to know more. Do you want a question mark? More? Yeah, sort of, right? It's interesting, which is, I know Eric Summerer has trademarked that word.
Speaker 2:
[60:33] Yeah. I'll send you a bill later.
Speaker 3:
[60:35] I don't know.
Speaker 2:
[60:36] You mentioned that summary card, each faction has that and it's almost like it opens up and you can see every card you've got and explains everything that those cards can do for your faction specifically. But you're right, it doesn't tell you what the other player can do.
Speaker 3:
[60:52] Well, and not to mention, you literally need that. You won't have. And in fact, I think there's even a rule on that, on that sheet that I didn't find in the rule book, which drove me nuts. I forget what the rule was, but there was some rule that was there. Oh, how to upgrade to the Golden Age.
Speaker 2:
[61:10] Yes.
Speaker 3:
[61:11] I did not find that in a rule book, but it was on that sheet. So it's interesting. I don't know, man. I think it's one, though, that if you're better at it, you'll like it more.
Speaker 2:
[61:24] Sure. Okay. You got to get good.
Speaker 3:
[61:26] Well, not every game is like that. I mean, there's many games I've played. I'm like, oh, I can't wait to see more. This one's like, I feel like I have to see more. Yeah. And play the different, especially, I've only played the two base factions. I know that the Egyptians had this whole Nile River thing, and there's a lot more going on. So we'll see.
Speaker 2:
[61:47] It's worth exploring, I think.
Speaker 3:
[61:48] Well, that is it, folks. Game talk to end the episode. Eric's about to go on a trip. The rest of us are not. Well, I'm sure there's trips coming up. I got a graduation on my horizon I got to go to.
Speaker 2:
[62:00] Me too.
Speaker 3:
[62:01] So, that's true.
Speaker 1:
[62:03] I'm gonna be starting a new job.
Speaker 2:
[62:05] Yeah. All sorts of new horizons.
Speaker 3:
[62:10] Well, folks, until next time, I'm Tom Vasel.
Speaker 1:
[62:13] I'm Julie Ahern.
Speaker 2:
[62:14] And I'm Eric Summerer.
Speaker 3:
[62:15] And we'll see you on our next show.
Speaker 2:
[62:18] Thanks for listening. At the Table is produced by Tom, Julie, and Eric with assistance from the team at Dice Tower Studios. You can find us online, on Facebook, or on Board Game Geek in the Dice Tower Guild. Promotional consideration has been provided by publishers in the form of a few copies of games. Dave Culling arranged our theme based on themes by Timothy Pinkham, and mild disappointment at unsubstantiated claims that Taylor Swift wore a mink coat brought to you by Darn Taze Inferno. Until next time, from all of us at the table, have fun gaming!
Speaker 3:
[62:54] Do you sleep at night, like, when you do these puns? Do you not feel like some guilt in your soul?
Speaker 2:
[62:58] I sleep like a baby.
Speaker 1:
[63:00] You know what would help if you don't, though, is some nice sounds of waves in the ocean.
Speaker 2:
[63:07] What was the sound you made, Julie, with the... All right, I like it, I like it, very subtle.
Speaker 3:
[63:14] Go.