0:00

Please mom, don't have to send me away. I want to

0:02

stay with you. It's only until all

0:04

this is over. is over. From Academy Award

0:06

winner Steve McQueen, a masterpiece. Your

0:08

son did not arrive

0:10

at his destination. You were meant

0:12

to be looking after him. Where's my

0:14

boy? him. Where's my boy? Critics

0:16

rave. Elliot Hevernon is perfect.

0:19

Seusser-ronan is superb. I just want to

0:21

go of the most enormous

0:23

cinematic experiences in recent history.

0:25

Blitz, written and directed by

0:27

Steve in recent history. now streaming on

0:29

Apple and directed by Steve McQueen. Hey

0:32

there, board I'm Walker with Diceratops an

0:34

independent board game publisher looking

0:36

for new looking We want fresh

0:38

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1:00

L-I-N-K-T-R-E-E-E slash Diceratops games. Hey

1:02

y'all, it's time for

1:04

rolling dice and taking

1:06

names. In this episode,

1:09

the guys review See

1:11

y 'all, it's time for

1:14

Rolling Dice and Taking Names.

1:16

In this episode, E-Roe, Thunder Road War

1:18

of the Ancients, Castle of Chaos,

1:20

Thunder Lie. Plus, of Chaos, of the

1:23

Toy Hall plus the winners of

1:25

the Toy Hall of Fame

1:27

are announced and buds with

1:29

a cookie. But

1:32

don't forget what they say about the cake. they

1:34

say about the you As the

1:36

end of the year, you

1:38

are listening to you are

1:41

Dice and to Names. This

1:43

is taking names. This is episode number 338.

1:45

I'm Tony. I'm Tony. we we

1:47

popular? Yeah, we're popular.

1:49

Yes, absolutely, we're popular.

1:51

we're popular. Okay. I don't know this

1:53

song don't know this song title at all

1:56

You you don't! the By the

1:58

way, that's Marty, my co -host of... dice

2:00

and taking aim of almost 12

2:02

years now. Popular. Popular is a

2:04

very famous song from the musical

2:06

Wicked. Okay. And we had a

2:09

discussion about this at Game Night

2:11

and Christian Chenoweth made it probably

2:13

next to Adina Menzel doing the

2:15

Fying Gravity. That was probably the

2:17

second biggest song out of it

2:19

in her amazing vocal range that

2:21

she has other than when she

2:23

speaks and then she makes dogs

2:25

yelp. And you saw her. I

2:27

did. I wouldn't recognize her now

2:29

because of all the work she's

2:31

done. I don't understand when you

2:33

have an attractive woman when they

2:35

get older, they start doing this

2:37

work and they end up looking

2:39

worse. You can age naturally and

2:41

still be beautiful, but she looks...

2:43

she's rough now. Really? Okay. I

2:45

mean I've been watching some of

2:47

the other videos of her doing

2:49

popular and the singing because I

2:51

mean Wicked is out and one

2:53

of them probably I don't know

2:55

if it's going to be one

2:57

of the biggest movies I think

2:59

before we're recording this that came

3:02

out over the weekend. It made

3:04

a hundred and twelve dollar hundred

3:06

twelve million domestically. It is a

3:08

huge movie. I think it was

3:10

the third biggest opening behind Deadpool

3:12

Wolverine and inside out too. Okay,

3:14

I can see where it could

3:16

push the the Barbie, you know,

3:18

the Barbie movie. I don't think

3:20

it hits Barbie. I don't think

3:22

it hits Barbie. I do not

3:24

think it is, but that's what

3:26

I'm guessing. Number one, obviously critics

3:28

love it, fans love it. They

3:30

made a movie for the fans,

3:32

they gave the fans what they

3:34

want and the fans were awarding

3:36

them. Now, the question is as

3:38

well, but there would be repeat

3:40

views, but there would be repeat

3:42

views. Right, I mean, you know,

3:44

the play or the Broadway show

3:46

was on for years, years, years,

3:48

years. So I know, does it

3:50

have the legs? I mean, I

3:52

think it may fade after Christmas,

3:55

but this is one of those,

3:57

you know, during all the vacations

3:59

over Thanksgiving over. you know,

4:01

it's something to do, right? It's something

4:03

to go if you can't afford a

4:05

movie ticket, you know. Yeah, and two

4:07

hours, two hours and 40 minutes for

4:09

part one, I'm like, yeah, I'm out.

4:11

I was like, two hours and 40

4:14

minutes. I went, okay, that's long. And

4:16

maybe I should check this out, but

4:18

when I saw part one, yeah, I'm

4:20

out. What the heck, I thought it

4:22

was the whole Broadway show. No, this

4:24

is part one, baby, and I've heard

4:26

the next one is just as long

4:28

as this one. Dang. I don't, oh,

4:31

I mean, I've seen Wicked in the

4:33

theater, so I can, how do you

4:35

draw it out? I mean, it's the

4:37

west and the east, the good and

4:39

the bad, and how she became the

4:41

bad, and I still don't know how

4:43

she got green, but that's beside the

4:46

point. I don't understand all that. And

4:48

the shoes and all that good stuff.

4:50

And Dorothy, I hope Dorothy makes a

4:52

guest appearance and if they're going to

4:54

extend it out, she might, she may

4:56

not. Is she supposed to? No. Okay.

4:58

But you know, you know, creative license.

5:00

No. This is where I give them

5:03

credit. They have not changed the story.

5:05

It seems like they're sticking to the

5:07

source. which is what people want. Stick

5:09

to the source, give them what they

5:11

want, they'll reward you for it and

5:13

they've done so. So it was like

5:15

a huge weekend. It was like I

5:17

read like 72% of the movie goers

5:20

were women. So it has that same

5:22

Barbie appeal. You know, I know a

5:24

lot of girlfriends and stuff dressed up

5:26

and went together and see it. So

5:28

it has that Barbie feel to it.

5:30

And this is one of those movies

5:32

that if it was a summer movie

5:34

flick, I for sure would have drafted

5:37

this bad boy. Oh yeah, easily. And

5:39

I mean I'm still looking for my

5:41

broom so I can dress up, you

5:43

know, and get a few flying monkeys

5:45

going. Wait, I'm going back to Wizard

5:47

of Oz. So now there was some

5:49

movie that came out recently, you probably

5:51

know, there was a budget of 250

5:54

million and it made 25 million or

5:56

something. Oh, well, maybe it was something

5:58

on. Well, I think like rock. made

6:00

like 50 million alone. It's like, what

6:03

were they thinking? And then I heard

6:05

that Netflix was originally just gonna put

6:07

it on their streaming service, and then

6:10

they decided to release it in theater,

6:12

and it bombed miserably, yes. Yeah, I

6:14

mean, it's got some big names in

6:17

it, some big salaries, and I'm like,

6:19

okay. And then I heard, hey, we

6:21

had 250 million, and we only made

6:24

25 million, but it's okay. It's a

6:26

write-off for 2024. Yeah, I guess that's

6:28

how they do. They just they just

6:31

write stuff off. But yeah, I don't

6:33

I don't understand studios putting this much

6:35

money into movies when it's hard to

6:38

have a big blockbuster anymore. It's rare

6:40

to get a Deadpool and Wolverine anymore

6:42

or a Barney or wicked. Or wicked.

6:45

Now I'm wondering what the budget on

6:47

wicked is. Well, I mean, you got

6:49

two amazing singers in it, but I

6:52

don't know how much, you know, they

6:54

were going to cash out on, they

6:56

may continue to grow, gain royalties. Okay,

6:59

150 million. There you go. That's a

7:01

decent budget for a movie, which means

7:03

it'll probably have to make around 300

7:06

million to break even, and it'll easily

7:08

do that. Yeah, but that's just part

7:10

one. That's just part one. Yes, yes,

7:13

yes. Oh, wait a minute, wait a

7:15

minute. Wicked part one and part two

7:17

combined budget to be 150 million. That's

7:20

how you make a move because they

7:22

did shoot them back to back at

7:24

the same time. So Bravo Studio, so

7:27

basically you only invested 75 million per

7:29

movie. That's how you make

7:31

money. Nice job. Nice job wicked. Yeah,

7:33

and I mean, find the actresses that

7:35

won't to be in it, who want

7:38

to do it justice. I mean, you

7:40

can't go on any service right now,

7:42

any social feed without Ariana popping up

7:44

saying with her crying that she got

7:46

the part. Sure, sure. Yeah, they're promoting

7:48

the movie really well. And but it's

7:50

so funny. In contrast, just today I

7:52

saw the new Captain American movie that's

7:54

coming out at the beginning of the

7:56

beginning of the year is currently sitting

7:58

at a of $395 million? Why? And

8:00

going in for its third reshute and

8:03

rewrites because now for the third time

8:05

they did an early screening and the

8:07

fans didn't like it. So they keep

8:09

tweaking this thing over and over putting

8:11

more money into it. After marketing you're

8:13

pushing a $500 million movie which means

8:15

it's gonna have to make a billion.

8:17

Write that baby off because there's no

8:19

way it's gonna make a billion bucks.

8:21

I hope it's got good streaming and

8:23

DVD sales. Did you still about DVDs?

8:25

No, I don't have, no. I don't,

8:28

do I have a DVD player? Yeah,

8:30

because I got a PlayStation. Yeah, yeah,

8:32

I do. So I am concerned about

8:34

physical media going away, especially movies. So

8:36

if it's a movie I really, really

8:38

like, and there's like a special version

8:40

of, for example, Godzilla minus one. It's

8:42

the collector's version is on my Christmas

8:44

list. I hope somebody gets it for

8:46

me. So, but stuff like that I

8:48

want to get or like old shows

8:50

that you can't really can't see a

8:53

lot of it anymore like IT crowd.

8:55

I'd like to get that on Blu-ray,

8:57

but I think it's only on DVD

8:59

right now. Okay, well IT crowd, which

9:01

y'all told me I now have to

9:03

pay for. I thought I was watching

9:05

it free on Netflix, and now I

9:07

can't get it on Netflix. It was

9:09

in there for years. You had years

9:11

to watch it. For years, I didn't

9:13

have Netflix until just last year or

9:15

this year. Okay. Leave me alone. I

9:18

can't help it. Hey, it's all free

9:20

over the air. Why do I need

9:22

to pay for this stuff? Okay, no,

9:24

that's, I mean, that's a fair assessment.

9:26

Yeah, but for me, for some reason,

9:28

I'm into just buying some movies that

9:30

I really enjoy on Blu-ray. I'll say

9:32

you get the behind-the-scenes stuff. Like I

9:34

bought the Deadpool Wolverine because I want

9:36

to listen to the commentary with the

9:38

director and Ryan Reynolds. Oh, that's a

9:41

good life tracking itself. Yeah, it will

9:43

be. It will be. Yeah, I think

9:45

what was the last Blue Ray I

9:47

bought would probably have been at a

9:49

Black Friday sale for Rebecca. long time

9:51

ago, about probably five or six years

9:53

ago, because we would do that. We

9:55

would go and see which ones were

9:57

coming out that we'd want to add

9:59

to the collection. And now I have

10:01

no idea where any of them are.

10:03

They may have gone with the move.

10:06

I don't know. A lot of my

10:08

blue-rays are like my video games still

10:10

in shrink. Or your board games. So

10:12

sad. Yeah, like I like I was

10:14

looking the other day, like I bought

10:16

deathnote like the collector's version and it's

10:18

like a year so good and it's

10:20

still in shrink and I'm like, I

10:22

need to watch that again. It's just

10:24

funny. I buy these stuff going, yes,

10:26

I got it. Now I can watch

10:28

it. It's like a video game. I

10:31

leave it in shrink. Okay. But this

10:33

is a board game podcast. You wouldn't

10:35

know it. You wouldn't know it. So

10:37

I want to tell you about something

10:39

real quick. Speaking of board games, a

10:41

couple weeks ago at the new game

10:43

store that opened up near me to

10:45

the table, they have a discord server

10:47

and I was talking with somebody and

10:49

somebody brought up Arkamhar and the store

10:51

owner got the special Arkamhar event package

10:53

or A special thing where you could

10:56

come in and get some goodies and

10:58

stuff. So there's another guy there that

11:00

plays. And I never met him before.

11:02

I said, hey, you want to do

11:04

the latest scenario, Midnight Gala, which is

11:06

kind of a standalone scenario. So he

11:08

said, sure. So we met on Friday

11:10

night, and it was just the two

11:12

of us. And the owner of the

11:14

store was really cool. He said, well,

11:16

look, you're the only ones here. So

11:18

here, you get all the goodies. So

11:21

here, you get all the goodies. You

11:23

get all the goodies. So here, you

11:25

get all the goodies. So here, you

11:27

get all the goodies. So, you get

11:29

all the goodies. So, you get all

11:31

the goodies. So, you get all the

11:33

goodies. So, you get all the goodies.

11:35

So, you get all the goodies. So,

11:37

you get all the goodies. So, you

11:39

get all the goodies. So, you get

11:41

all the, you get all the goodies

11:43

with characters in the latest expansion. So

11:46

the nice little acrylic standees look sweet.

11:48

They also game with the little acrylic

11:50

arrows that you use for building out

11:52

the map and everything. Anyway, really nice

11:54

package. So we play midnight gala and

11:56

it end up being one of my

11:58

favorite standalone scenarios because in this one,

12:00

you're going to a gala in Arkham

12:02

and before the game starts, you pick

12:04

a faction you're going to work with.

12:06

and you get allies that will help

12:08

you out. Each of you have a

12:11

certain goal, but the way you achieve

12:13

that goal is based on the faction

12:15

that you. Several things I like about

12:17

this, replayability, because I can go back

12:19

and play with another faction and play

12:21

a little bit differently, and we finished

12:23

in two hours, which is insane for

12:25

typically the standalone. They're usually a really

12:27

long-running thing. So I love that I

12:29

can play in two hours, replayability. standalone

12:31

scenario. So if you have Arkham Har

12:33

or the LCG and want a fun

12:36

standalone scenario, check out Midnight Gala. It

12:38

goes straight to the top as one

12:40

of my favorite along with a murder

12:42

at Excel show hotel or something like

12:44

that. It's, which is like you're playing

12:46

clue. You actually go in and trying

12:48

to solve a murder, which is fun.

12:50

You talked about that playing the clue

12:52

trying to solve the murder. Yeah, I

12:54

get to that. Okay, that was cool.

12:56

I had his wild that and he

12:58

had all the specials and he put

13:01

it. That's pretty darn cool. He is

13:03

a really cool owner. Basically says if

13:05

you want it, let me know. And

13:07

he competes with online stores. Basically, he

13:09

sells under MSRP to try to get

13:11

your business. Okay, all right, I have

13:13

to remember that and then I can

13:15

I can have you mule it for

13:17

me. So that's where I go play

13:19

my Star Wars unlimited events and he

13:21

sells boxes for below MSRP. He basically

13:23

sells them which you get them online,

13:26

which is really cool. Does he now

13:28

have all three booster boxes in stock

13:30

because you know there was that I

13:32

figured as much? Yeah. Yeah, so is

13:34

he selling individuals? He is, he is.

13:36

He really only started carrying a lot

13:38

of the individuals with the latest expansion,

13:40

but he has all the leaders. So

13:42

if you need to fill out leaders,

13:44

let me know. I'll go pick him

13:46

up for you from there. I went

13:49

there this past week and played my

13:51

first constructed tournament. That was really bad.

13:53

Number one, I shouldn't have built a

13:55

deck the night before, never played it,

13:57

then go in there and play a

13:59

blind. That was not smart. Not smart,

14:01

no. So I went, I went basically,

14:03

oh and three. I won one game.

14:05

I went 0-2-0-2-1-2. So, but it's a

14:07

learning experience. Well, why do you think,

14:09

well, yeah, what did you learn other

14:11

than not to play a deck that

14:14

you've never played before without practice? Well,

14:16

well, that's the other lesson. was there

14:18

some really cool people there that I've

14:20

met in the past and as I'm

14:22

playing with them they're going to say

14:24

you might want to do this you

14:26

might want to do this you might

14:28

like they're telling me the strategies as

14:30

we're playing because it's extremely casual it's

14:32

like a $5 entry fee so there's

14:34

not a lot of stakes Yeah, and

14:36

if you win, you get one pack,

14:39

free pack for every game that you

14:41

win. So, oh, just for entering, you

14:43

still get a pack. So basically, you're

14:45

paying $5 for a free pack, and

14:47

you can get any pack you want.

14:49

Sparks or the Barry, etc. or anything

14:51

like that. So anyway, so what I

14:53

learn is playing with people that really

14:55

know the game, so much to the

14:57

point they're really talking like above my

14:59

head, because they call out names of

15:01

names of cards. You know, I don't

15:04

know the cards well enough to be

15:06

able to go, oh, okay, that card

15:08

does this sort of deal. So I've

15:10

got all these cards, I'm invested in

15:12

it, I want to get better at

15:14

it, which is why hopefully, I know

15:16

the holidays are crazy, you and I

15:18

can get back on the schedule of

15:20

playing over lunch again. Yes, allow that

15:22

and it's urine analysis or whatever you

15:24

want to call it is evaluations. Gotta

15:26

get all that done. Gotta get the

15:29

2025 calendar out, get it planned for

15:31

next year so that people can know

15:33

what they're going to be doing for

15:35

next year. I mean, you know, it's

15:37

typical stuff. You're in management. You understand

15:39

this, what you've got to do for

15:41

it. That's well actually starting December we

15:43

coast down really quick. One guy that

15:45

works for me is basically five days

15:47

less than the office and he's gone

15:49

and like people just start disappearing in

15:51

December. Oh, okay. Well, that's good. Yeah,

15:54

I'm losing a lot of people to

15:56

because they had to work a lot

15:58

of overtime during the storms and now

16:00

I'm just like, oh, are you going

16:02

to be online? Maybe I said, okay,

16:04

I'll make sure that's that's for up

16:06

your lunch. No meetings. Yes, actually, it

16:08

should. I will build a different deck

16:10

because this one's number one. So a

16:12

popular deck right now is Jango. So

16:14

I was going to try to mess

16:16

with it. The bad thing is, is

16:19

that the two sets of rares that

16:21

you need for the game, I only

16:23

had one. and none of the other,

16:25

which is extreme, I found out extremely

16:27

important to the deck for this to

16:29

work, which I just did not have.

16:31

So I will be going out and

16:33

buying FETs a fire spray online somewhere.

16:35

They're like two bucks a piece or

16:37

something like that. Oh, okay. That's not

16:39

bad at all. I mean, you know,

16:41

that's what you want to see is

16:44

some of these high value, not legendaries,

16:46

but some of these rarers that are

16:48

not that expensive. They can help your

16:50

deck versus I know legendaries are going

16:52

to do. What's cool is in this

16:54

deck, there were two sets of common

16:56

cards that were extremely important for the

16:58

deck itself, which I thought was really

17:00

cool. There was like, well if you

17:02

build this deck, you must have this

17:04

common card in it, which I thought,

17:06

sweet, that I have! Now, one game,

17:09

and then we'll jump over to some

17:11

very important news here. But the, what

17:13

was it, Astro, what was the name

17:15

of the game we previewed at GenCon

17:17

that we backed on Kickstarter, the card

17:19

game. Oh, man, I'm sorry, I shouldn't

17:21

do this to you. I know, Astro,

17:23

not Astro Ward. Oh, altered, yes. I

17:25

haven't heard anything. Dude, it's um, no.

17:27

It's, uh, we, we, uh, yeah, we,

17:29

you and I bought a booster box.

17:31

We didn't even open them. I'm actually

17:34

putting them on eBay, getting our monies

17:36

back. If the game is doing well,

17:38

it's not doing well in Charlotte. So

17:40

why play it if nobody's playing? Right.

17:42

And even going online in the market

17:44

haven't even registered or anything like that,

17:46

so. If you go in the app,

17:48

the whole deal with them, right, was

17:50

to be able to trade cards online

17:52

and print them out, it still is

17:54

not turned on or active. You still

17:57

can't do it. Which was the cornerstone

17:59

of their business model, and it's still

18:01

not working. So I'm like, okay. That

18:03

makes no sense. No, that makes no

18:05

sense. So the only way to get

18:07

cards is the traditional way of going

18:09

on eBay and buying them, because stores

18:11

aren't carrying them. TCG player doesn't carry

18:13

it at it at all. which is

18:15

not a good sign because TCG player

18:17

carries everything. Right. All right. Well, the

18:19

winners have been announced. the National Toy

18:22

Hall of Fame. And just to remind

18:24

everybody, I said that I think my

18:26

little pony, Transformers, and the salt after

18:28

premium toy of balloon, still a freaking

18:30

toy people, should go in and Marty

18:32

said, Transformers, trampling, stupid, and choose your

18:34

own adventures, also stupid. But the winners

18:36

are. My little pony Transformers and then

18:38

one that just blew everybody's mind because

18:40

of now I'll admit it is it

18:42

is a beyond popular game that you

18:44

can pick up at Walmart that a

18:47

lot of people play it Especially if

18:49

you are in a community of 60

18:51

and older Okay, you know, and that

18:53

is phase 10 the card game. I

18:55

didn't even need the card game at

18:57

the end of it. It's phase 10

18:59

Of all the card games though, of

19:01

all the face 10, like is Rook

19:03

in there? Or is Uno in there?

19:05

Yes, I think Uno made it, yes.

19:07

Okay, Uno makes sense. I

19:10

don't understand this phase 10, you're right,

19:12

it is totally everywhere, but I still

19:14

don't, I don't get phase 10. So

19:16

get it. I mean, Skipbo, Phase 10.

19:19

Skipbo, didn't make it. I would say

19:21

Skipbo over Phase 10. I still play

19:23

it with my aunt and uncle, and

19:25

we use the Phase 10 scramble, and

19:27

thank goodness, because that's the only way

19:30

I play that game, because other than

19:32

that, it just takes way too freaking

19:34

long. And even then face 10 when

19:36

you're doing a scramble, that takes way

19:38

too long. And what I mean by

19:41

scramble is you can do any of

19:43

the series, you don't have to do

19:45

them in order. If you've got a

19:47

good hand that suddenly you've got all

19:50

six of the colors and you haven't

19:52

done the seven colors yet, you can

19:54

use that. Because other than that, that

19:56

game just drags and drags and drags

19:58

and I've, oh. So let's talk about

20:01

the other two winners. I'm not. surprised

20:03

that they won. I'm surprised they both

20:05

won. To get two big IPs in

20:07

the same year, but they both belong.

20:09

I have no issues. I mean, you

20:12

picked two of them to go in.

20:14

I only picked one because I didn't

20:16

think they'd pick two. Oh, okay. That's

20:18

the only reason why. No, congrats. My

20:20

little opponent in Transformers 100% deserved to

20:23

be there. I mean, the amount of

20:25

content and product that's happened since the

20:27

80s with those. Exactly, it's

20:29

just unreal. I mean, between the

20:31

movies, between selling all the various

20:33

toys that are out there, the

20:36

constant selling of toys over time.

20:38

I mean, it's, when did my

20:40

little pony come out? It came

20:42

out when we were in, was

20:44

it in college? I can't remember,

20:46

but I'm just thinking about, it

20:48

has not stopped. ever, you know,

20:50

because if I remember correctly on

20:52

My Little Pony, maybe on an

20:54

answer to, you know, getting a,

20:56

doing a cartoon and then developing

20:58

a toy, I know that was

21:00

the way with Conan and the

21:02

Barbarian. 1981. 1981. Okay, right before

21:04

we went into college. Uh, no,

21:07

right. So we went into high

21:09

school. Okay, that too. Yeah, can

21:11

we say, can we say that

21:13

make us sound a little bit

21:15

younger? Yeah, but no, I totally

21:17

get, and now look at renegade

21:19

games, who has a whole product

21:21

line built around Transformers on My

21:23

Little Pony. And G.I. Joe. Yeah.

21:25

I remember, and this has nothing

21:27

to, I remember writing middle school

21:29

bus. And the people going gaga

21:31

over the Star Wars figures that

21:33

kept coming out. And I'm just

21:36

like, man, now I think back,

21:38

man, why I did my mom

21:40

not make me buy those and

21:42

stick them in a blister pack

21:44

somewhere. Well, that's why I bought

21:46

this special Hallmark ornament that's a

21:48

blister pack of Darth Vader. Yeah.

21:50

That is honestly one of the

21:52

coolest ornaments I've ever seen in

21:54

that song. Really? I said, yes,

21:56

because it's an ornament of the

21:58

blister pack and the. inside

22:00

and you can shake it at a

22:02

move. So I mean, it's so cool.

22:04

Oh man, speaking of that, I see

22:07

you did a Christmas, did you do

22:09

a Twitter Christmas tree poll on what

22:11

counts as a Christmas tree by your

22:13

standards? I explained that one to me.

22:15

Yeah, so on Twitter I posted a

22:17

poll because I just decorated, you can't

22:19

see it over my shoulder, in my

22:21

room I have an NC State tree.

22:23

Right. Every tree is a theme. This

22:25

one happens to be an NC State

22:27

tree. And so I put up a

22:29

poll because I'm sitting there decorating the

22:31

tree, I'm going, you know, who's going

22:33

to see the backside of the tree?

22:35

Why am I putting ornaments on the

22:37

back side when nobody sees it? So

22:39

I posted the poll. If your Christmas

22:41

tree is up against a wall, do

22:43

you decorate the back of it? And

22:45

a whopping 60% said, yes I do.

22:47

So do you, sir, decorate the back

22:49

of the tree? First off, I know

22:51

your wife. I know the answer. That

22:53

tree is fully decked out. I did

22:55

it myself. Oh, yeah. The other trees?

22:57

Oh, yeah. They need to be on

22:59

a rotating stand so that you can

23:01

see all the way around them. So

23:03

I do not have the pressure that

23:05

you do for decorating trees. We got

23:07

our one tree up and then we

23:09

have the what I call the Tony,

23:11

Charlie Brown Christmas tree, which is a

23:13

little, it's not even a tree by

23:15

Vanessa's standards of seven feet, six feet,

23:17

six feet, six feet. Yeah, but well,

23:19

this one's only three feet. That does

23:21

not qualify. I mean, I got three

23:23

of them, so together if I stack

23:25

them I want each other, they would

23:27

work. But no, that is where like,

23:29

you got me the Magic Carp and

23:31

the Blast Toys. Yeah. Are there's not,

23:34

the, the Pokemon Hallmark ornaments are amazing.

23:36

The sculpts of those are so good.

23:38

Oh yeah. And also on there is

23:40

all my squirrel ornaments. So it's only

23:42

three feet tree and it's still pretty

23:44

bare. But yes, all the ornaments have.

23:46

go on the tree and therefore I

23:48

have to decorate the back but our

23:50

back is never against the wall. It's

23:52

always shown. Now in the old house

23:54

the tree that was again would be

23:56

in a corner. I barely put anything

23:58

back there. Now let me ask you

24:00

this. I know a lot of your

24:02

trees are usually still decorated from you

24:04

don't redecorate them right? Oh no we

24:06

do. No we don't. Oh you decorated.

24:08

So what is your role in tree

24:10

decorating? Are you pulling the stuff out

24:12

of the box and giving it to

24:14

Vanessa to hang or is Vanessa pulling

24:16

stuff out of the box and you

24:18

hang? This is a process y'all. It

24:20

is. We did the pop culture tree,

24:22

me, Vanessa and Brett, and we were

24:24

all contributing by opening and placing on

24:26

the tree. There are four crates that

24:28

go on the pop culture tree, which

24:30

is nine feet tall. Oh my gosh.

24:32

Yeah, the big crates too. So I'm

24:34

responsible for the Tetris part at the

24:36

end. Once a crate is empty and

24:38

there's just empty boxes from it, I'm

24:40

the one that has to get everything

24:42

back in the box so it fits

24:44

back in the box. While I do

24:46

that, they continue the process. Okay, for

24:48

hanging, like my job is I'm always

24:50

putting ornaments on the tree because I'm

24:52

tall. Oh, we all put the ornaments

24:54

on the tree. Okay, all right, very

24:56

good. Now, Donna's is to unwrap, and

24:58

then this, and we were talking about

25:01

tonight, she goes, I go, so how

25:03

many of them did you move? She

25:05

started laughing. She goes, maybe a dozen.

25:07

Because I put too many colors close

25:09

together and stuff like that. I'm like,

25:11

yeah, of course she did. I do,

25:13

I do on the pop culture tree

25:15

try to put things together like we

25:17

got a Pokemon section, I got a

25:19

sports section. They came out with a

25:21

lot of tabletop games from Hallmark, like

25:23

clue and battleship and stuff like that,

25:25

so all those are together, so. Okay,

25:27

our tree is just a bunch of

25:29

ornaments and balls from 50 years ago

25:31

and every time Donna gingerly takes that

25:33

ball that was on my grandmother's Christmas

25:35

tree and hands it to me with

25:37

a white glove and I have to

25:39

slowly put it on the tree and

25:41

if it to fall it's in slow

25:43

motion because Lord ill break and I'm

25:45

just like just give me the freaking

25:47

ornament put it on the tree two-thirds

25:49

of the way I'm done I am

25:51

so done and I only do one

25:53

and you do 20 or 30 I

25:55

don't know How many is up now?

25:57

One, two, three, four, four. Six of

25:59

the 13 are up. Six of the

26:01

13 are up. Six of the 13.

26:03

God. One or all right. From happy

26:05

times to unhappy times. So a couple

26:07

episodes, we talked about the gas cans.

26:09

If you didn't catch that, the new

26:11

gas cans that are out have. I

26:13

guess some sort of regulation involved with

26:15

how they're made now. And you and

26:17

I were talking about some really annoying

26:19

things about basically to take the spout

26:21

off, you've got the cap that has

26:23

like salt teeth that you have to

26:25

screw in and you have to depress

26:28

a button so you could take the

26:30

cap also it doesn't accidentally unscrew. It's

26:32

got the, what else was really annoying

26:34

about it. Oh, the short handle, the

26:36

anti-flame restor on it? Yeah. Yeah, so

26:38

you've got to depress a lever or

26:40

a button in order for gas to

26:42

even pour, so you got to keep

26:44

it depressed as you're trying to tilt

26:46

the can and pour it. All right,

26:48

so another annoying thing about this, I

26:50

had to go fill it up the

26:52

other day, and I get to the

26:54

gas station, and I don't know if

26:56

yours has it, but right inside the

26:58

nozzle is this white cap that I

27:00

think is either for a spark or

27:02

a spark or a Or it's to

27:04

keep you from jamming the nozzle all

27:06

the way down into the gas cans.

27:08

You can only stick it in so

27:10

far. Well, what happens is, with the

27:12

gas nozzle, it has the vapor detection.

27:14

So immediately it shuts off. I start

27:16

squirting in the can and it shuts

27:18

off. Squirting the can shuts off. It's

27:20

like, okay, fine. I'm going to pull

27:22

it a little bit out. So to

27:24

keep that from happening, I depress the

27:26

handle. because I get overflowed. I was

27:28

so mad. I'm like, this is the

27:30

stupidest thing ever. Can we just? Darwin

27:32

take over over at

27:34

this point you if

27:36

you correctly correctly use

27:38

a gas you don't you

27:40

don't need to

27:42

be on this I agree

27:44

I agree I agree

27:46

agree with you why

27:48

in the world

27:50

is it complicated like I said

27:52

in the I said there

27:55

we're in there back

27:57

a me back a

27:59

metal can them back in

28:01

them back in

28:03

there and if people

28:05

blow themselves up

28:07

with it Hey, there

28:09

you go, and

28:11

I know that's harsh

28:13

that's that's just the

28:15

way it is the

28:17

way it is. Sometimes you you

28:19

with to deal with

28:21

harsh reality. right, right

28:23

y 'all guess what

28:25

had one had one

28:27

of our taste buds at Koudob.

28:29

Every once in a while, Tony

28:31

once while Tony or

28:33

I'll bring something

28:35

and we taste it

28:37

right there live. So let's

28:39

let's go over and

28:41

hear our latest old

28:43

location taste buds. Taste

28:51

buds Taste

28:56

buds Two

29:01

incredible

29:04

stars Taste

29:09

buds Two

29:11

incredible stars

29:17

Taste buds just

29:19

a just a bunch there's just

29:21

a bunch All right, we are

29:24

in the middle of middle It's another

29:26

Q it's another cutoba I brought something

29:28

to you that Vanessa brought to

29:30

you that us brought for a a

29:32

Hallmark. always have these weird

29:34

cookies during the holidays. cookies

29:37

I the holidays. Okay. What I have before

29:39

you is a deal-licious pair. It's a It's

29:41

a deal cookie. Well, if it

29:43

if it looks to be

29:45

like a limit. He's

29:47

been paired with somebody. It's I think

29:50

what's a cookie and a cookie and a

29:52

deal pickle. Oh, I see. With the frost. like it

29:54

has actual like the frosting deal

29:56

in the Okay, so

29:58

you do like

30:00

Okay, so you do like deal.

30:02

Oh, I love. those chips. The

30:04

chips. The chips. I've got two

30:06

things I've got two things I've

30:08

got to get to use. That

30:10

is sweet and deal. My daughter

30:12

bought us and I'll get these

30:14

coolest next time is a, you

30:16

remember when I brought you the

30:19

Mumbai Moonshine? Yes. It's okay. Well,

30:21

I have now coconut rum, blueberry

30:23

and something else. Oh, moon, moon

30:25

pie? Moon pie flavored moonshine. Yes.

30:27

That's the coconut? I'm interested in

30:29

coconut. I'm interested in coconut. I

30:31

definitely am interested in that. All

30:33

right. Do we need, let's get

30:35

a knife. Okay. So we got

30:37

one small cookie here that we're

30:39

just going to cut in half.

30:41

Again, we are live on location

30:43

at Cudoba as I stall and

30:45

Tony grabs a knife from over

30:47

from the I'm not sure what

30:49

you call the area where you

30:51

get that stuff, but the condiment

30:53

area which there you go. The

30:55

condiment area. Okay, I cut you

30:58

choose. I'll take the small old

31:00

crap. Oh, this is shortbread cookie.

31:02

Yeah, so it's definitely got All

31:05

right, you ready? It's got deal

31:07

in the, uh... Yeah, it's got

31:09

deal in the batter. And yeah,

31:11

interesting, okay, let's do it. Hmm.

31:16

Okay. That's not bad. It's not

31:18

bad. It's a sweet like, whoa,

31:20

that's a powerful sweet coming through.

31:22

It's very sweet, very sweet with

31:24

the hand of the deal. So

31:27

it doesn't have the sourness of

31:29

a pickle. It just has a

31:31

flavor of deal and the sweetness

31:33

of a cookie. Oh man, that

31:35

is sweet. I'm not a big

31:38

fan of iced cookies. Well, this

31:40

is because it makes it too

31:42

sweet. Vanessa loves these. Okay,

31:44

that's good. Not like that. Will sweet for me

31:47

though, which is unusual. I can usually handle sweet,

31:49

but mmm. Okay. So there's, oh my God, it

31:51

hits so quick on that sweetness. There's 85 and

31:53

5 calories for the night. I don't count that

31:55

crap. Okay, all right, so yeah, if you got

31:58

a Hallmark near you, try some interesting flavor cookies.

32:00

Were there any other flavors that you know of?

32:02

Yes, but they're all gone. And she said, I've

32:04

got to bring you, you guys, the deal one.

32:07

So that's what we did. All right, very good

32:09

man. I'm good at my Hallmark and see if

32:11

I can find some. Yeah, well I've been bringing

32:13

you ornaments. Is this true? Are they on the

32:16

tree yet? The tree's not up. I'm not like

32:18

you. I only have to put up one. Oh

32:20

yeah. The two big ones are up and the

32:22

others are starting. Two nine-foot trees. Oh gosh, no.

32:24

One of them. So Vanessa has told me we're

32:27

never buying another prelet tree again because this one

32:29

nine-foot tree, the lights are dimming. And it frustrates

32:31

her to know when. I said, I don't want

32:33

to have to put lights on trees. I said,

32:36

I'm tired of buying trees. And in three years,

32:38

the lights start going out. And what do you

32:40

do? You have an only tree. But then you

32:42

have to string lights on them. Where is the

32:45

rule that says lights have to be on trees?

32:47

Right. Well, it's Vanessa's rule. OK. That's all it

32:49

matters. That's all it matters. All right. There you

32:51

go, y' y'all. Tastebud y' y' y' y' y'

32:53

y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y'

32:56

y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y'

32:58

y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y'

33:00

y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y'

33:02

y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y' y'

33:05

y' y' There

33:08

is a Christmas spectacular sale going on

33:10

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33:12

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33:25

mats. 15% off and you got a

33:28

little storage case that comes along with

33:30

it. I love these mats. I use

33:32

them all the time here. We use

33:34

them every week at our game night.

33:36

And Tony at 15% off. That's pretty

33:39

good. I sold two of them this

33:41

past week. Oh really? Tell me about

33:43

it. What happened here? I had my

33:45

gaming mat out on the table and

33:47

people were looking for gifts for their

33:50

family and they were saying, you know,

33:52

we play poor games with the family.

33:54

they said, this was nice that you

33:56

had this out here, able to pick

33:58

up cards. They didn't have a bunch

34:01

of coasters sitting out there. They were

34:03

able to, you know, put the drinks

34:05

on the mat because I had it

34:07

scot-scarded, it was taken care of, told

34:09

them not to worry about anything. Sure

34:12

enough. They said, you know what, this

34:14

is perfect. I said, well, you've got

34:16

to head over to Game Toppers. LLC

34:18

to make sure that you get the

34:21

special deal that's going on. So yep,

34:23

I sold two of them. We love

34:25

supporting our good friend, Burkey, so we

34:27

love his products. We can't wait to

34:29

see what he's going to be coming

34:32

out with in 2025, but to take

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34:42

All right, here's a game from Osprey

34:44

that is not a David Thompson game.

34:46

Seems like, you know, David Thompson's always

34:49

got these games. But it's by another

34:51

one of our favorite designers, Apollo Mori

34:53

and Francisco Cerrochi. And this is Battalion

34:55

War of the Ancients. Now, you taught

34:57

me a word when you introduced this

34:59

game to me. Marty, I think you

35:02

said it was, or words of this

35:04

type of game, a rank and file

35:06

game. Is that what you called it?

35:08

Yeah, so to me it's kind of

35:10

like a rank and file game which

35:13

is kind of reminiscent of the old

35:15

war hammer fantasy games where you had

35:17

all these little models and you put

35:19

them into ranks and files basically rows

35:21

and columns and you would orient them

35:23

a certain way and they would all

35:26

move together. an attack. So you probably

35:28

put your guys up front that can

35:30

take a lot of damage in the

35:32

front and the behind you have your

35:34

range guys shooting errors etc. As you

35:36

take damage they're gonna start taking damage

35:39

from the front obviously because that's where

35:41

the combat happens and if ever you

35:43

know everybody's gone you've kind of disbanded

35:45

that unit. This game is mimicking that

35:47

sort of thing but without miniatures. Instead,

35:49

your units are represented by little pieces

35:52

of cardboard that you stack together to

35:54

create kind of your rank and file

35:56

within a unit. And I think that's

35:58

one of the things that I just.

36:00

the first time you taught it, you

36:03

know, a couple of the plays later,

36:05

I understood. But I was just like,

36:07

okay, I'm not getting what you mean

36:09

by that, but now I see that.

36:11

I started thinking about, you know, the

36:13

various battles of the, you know, we

36:16

were playing the Romans and how they

36:18

had the various attrition of men in

36:20

order to win the battle. And that's

36:22

what you're doing here is you're trying

36:24

to bring. the attrition of your men

36:26

and be able to defend based on

36:29

where they are on the battlefield of

36:31

hey I've got a bunch of spearmen

36:33

or pikemen up front here and then

36:35

I've got my archers behind them and

36:37

if you charge into my lines my

36:39

pikemen are going to take care of

36:42

you but when my archers may be

36:44

able to soften you up before you

36:46

get there you know and that's just

36:48

my mind of thinking of okay well

36:50

how is this mimicking war and that's

36:53

what it was doing for me? Also

36:55

kudos to this and I know we're

36:57

not going into the rules here, but

36:59

this is one of those games where

37:01

they give you various scenarios, various build,

37:03

you know, these types of layouts to

37:06

get a feel for the game, and

37:08

then you can explore options and have

37:10

bigger games. You could build your own

37:12

army here, right? Just like you could

37:14

with the later ones. Yeah, and in

37:16

fact, inside the rulebook, they explained to

37:19

you how to build your own army,

37:21

what do you use, etc. What you

37:23

have is, is you've got several sectors,

37:25

two-player game, you're going to have three

37:27

sectors, a center, left and right. In

37:29

the games that we play, it was

37:32

kind of pre-set up. There are four

37:34

factions in this game. There's Romans, there's

37:36

Carthage, the Han Empire, and the Greco

37:38

Bactrian kingdom. The goal of the game

37:40

is, one of two of two of

37:43

two things. that center sector if ever

37:45

it's your turn and your opponent has

37:47

nobody in that center sector no units

37:49

that they are not defending you win

37:51

or if you ever have to draw

37:53

a card and your deck is empty

37:56

then you'll lose and here's the kicker

37:58

Tony is lots of times in these

38:00

style of games they can go in

38:02

a long time and they take a

38:04

while this is a 30 minute game

38:06

is one of those that literally the

38:09

number of cards in your deck is

38:11

determined by the number of units you

38:13

have on the board. And these scenarios

38:15

that when playing only had six. So

38:17

we only had six cards in our

38:19

deck. We each have a deck for

38:22

our faction. We draw six, make a

38:24

draw pile, draw two of those to

38:26

go on our hand, meaning there's only

38:28

four left in there. Over the course

38:30

of the game, you're going to be

38:33

forced. to draw cards when you take

38:35

a rally action or you lose a

38:37

unit. So losing a unit causes the

38:39

other player or yourself to have to

38:41

draw a card of whoever lost the

38:43

unit. That's right. And I think that

38:46

was one of the things that I

38:48

was like, okay, I like how this

38:50

game can quickly end and if you're

38:52

not prepared for it, it's like, holy

38:54

freaking cat. I like how this game

38:56

can end. Well, I mean, sometimes, you

38:59

know, you're sitting there, okay, this is

39:01

taking forever. And, but I, you know,

39:03

how sometimes you can get dice rolls,

39:05

they can just drag on and on

39:07

and on. I like how the resolution

39:09

of battle occurred. I mean, it just,

39:12

it moved very quickly, right? Yeah, yeah.

39:14

It wasn't on the table forever. I

39:16

also like to how you issue orders

39:18

to your units. The number of orders

39:20

that you have, which are represented by

39:23

these little disks, equal the number of

39:25

units that you have. And when you

39:27

go out there to activate a unit

39:29

that has no disks on it, no

39:31

order on it already, you will put

39:33

one on there. And if you have

39:36

unlike or different types of members in

39:38

that unit, maybe they're not all the

39:40

same thing, you add an additional disk.

39:42

And then you can activate them. We'll

39:44

talk about in a second what you

39:46

can do with them when you do

39:49

that. If you want to activate them

39:51

again, you have to double the number

39:53

of disks that are on there. So

39:55

it's more expensive to activate them again.

39:57

But remember, you've only got six disks.

39:59

And you want to use these effectively

40:02

because when it comes time to get

40:04

your disk back, that forces you to

40:06

draw a card. So now Tony's we're

40:08

playing the game. We're like, I want

40:10

to spend one disk here. be as

40:13

effective as possible before you have to

40:15

do that rally. Fun game. I did

40:17

enjoy it. The first time I played,

40:19

I'm like, I'm not sure I'm getting

40:21

this, you know? I was like, how,

40:23

why is it not, you know, gripping

40:26

me? But then after the times, you

40:28

know, we played again, it was like,

40:30

oh, okay, I can see some strategy

40:32

here, I can see how moving will

40:34

make it so that I need to

40:36

protect the dice. I liked how all

40:39

the cards that we were, yeah. Like

40:41

the special abilities on the units themselves.

40:43

Yeah, they each may have an ability,

40:45

like you said, give maybe a plus

40:47

one if you're on the flank or

40:50

something like that or the outside sector

40:52

or something. Yeah. Exactly. So I was

40:54

like, okay, I'm getting to understand this,

40:56

but you got to be careful with

40:58

those cards. Like you said, it was

41:00

going to be because that's a game

41:03

ending decision right there. If you're drawing

41:05

too many cards. What happens is when

41:07

you activate a unit, you have a

41:09

couple choices. If it's a ranged unit,

41:11

you can do a barrage. Basically, you

41:13

can say, I'm gonna attack some unengaged

41:16

unit that's in this particular sector. You

41:18

can charge, you're gonna rush into battle.

41:20

And this Tony is where you mentioned

41:22

earlier, you have a chance to react.

41:24

You can either react to my behavior,

41:26

we have some ranged guys shoot at

41:29

me to try to hurt me as

41:31

I'm coming in, or you can send

41:33

one of your other units out to

41:35

meet me on the battlefield. Because if

41:37

you decide to do the ranged attack,

41:40

what that means is when it comes

41:42

back to me, if I still have

41:44

units left, I get to pick who

41:46

I go up against, and for sure,

41:48

I'm coming after your weaker archers. Exactly.

41:50

And then when it comes time for

41:53

attacking, you're just going to always have

41:55

three ice sets you're going to roll.

41:57

There may be modifiers depending on the

41:59

types of abilities in your units, and

42:01

you can always discard a card from

42:03

your hand, that valuable card to add

42:06

a die roll. You're going to roll

42:08

your die, and each of your units

42:10

has a certain number that they're looking

42:12

for. The lower the number, the better.

42:14

means if you assert that it was

42:16

a 5, that means anything 5 or

42:19

higher will hit. And if you have

42:21

a 2, that's amazing. It means anything

42:23

2 or higher is going to hit.

42:25

Any 8s, these are based on D8s.

42:27

Any 8s are automatic hit. You just

42:30

put it off to the side. Anything

42:32

else that meets the threshold of your

42:34

units, you can assign them to your

42:36

units and deal damage. Now, you as

42:38

the defender must make a decision at

42:40

this point. If I have three hits

42:43

coming your way, each of the little

42:45

cardboard pieces has a cohesion number on

42:47

them, maybe two, maybe three, little dots

42:49

on there, and each of those represent

42:51

a hit that you can absorb. If

42:53

you ever take the number that's on

42:56

there, you actually take that unit offings

42:58

out of the game. That's one of

43:00

your units that maybe stacked of three

43:02

that you have that are gone. You

43:04

also have the option of using disorder

43:06

tokens to soak up those hits. Let's

43:09

say I only do one hit, but

43:11

if you have a cohesion of two,

43:13

just one damage there is going to

43:15

make you lose that unit. But instead,

43:17

you could take one of your six

43:20

order disks that you have that's available,

43:22

flip it to the disorder side, and

43:24

say, I'm gonna soak up this hit.

43:26

But what have you just done? You've

43:28

just used up one of your order

43:30

tokens. That's probably was the hardest thing

43:33

for me to understand in this game.

43:35

Okay. I mean, even with you just

43:37

talking about it, the cohesion, trying to

43:39

understand, you know, I'm just so used,

43:41

okay, you got a hit, I never

43:43

understood, you set the eight aside, okay,

43:46

it's a hit. It's an automatic hit,

43:48

but you're not having to assign, because

43:50

if you got a bunch of hits,

43:52

that means all the other dice can

43:54

be assigned. but an eight is automatically,

43:56

it automatically counts, so you don't have

43:59

to assign that one to a unit,

44:01

so it gives you two other spots

44:03

on your units to assign the dice

44:05

too. Still washed over me, I'm sorry.

44:07

I played the game. you would, and

44:10

I'll admit, I'll let you do the

44:12

damage. So you roll an eight. Okay,

44:14

so I don't have to assign that

44:16

die to a unit. It's just an

44:18

automatic hit. That leaves a spot open

44:20

on the unit for another die to

44:23

be assigned. Oh. As long as it

44:25

matches the threshold. So it's to the

44:27

bit, an egg's not to the benefit

44:29

of the defender, but it does give

44:31

in. No, it's a benefit to the

44:33

attacker. But see that's what I'm just

44:36

not grasping on this game. I could

44:38

not grasp it when we were playing.

44:40

Fine, the eight's a hit. All right,

44:42

so I put it on the first

44:44

unit. It's got two cohesion dots. No,

44:46

you don't have to put it on

44:49

the unit. Here, I'm going to give

44:51

you an example. I have a unit.

44:53

If I roll five, they're successful. I'm

44:55

going to roll a eight five five.

44:57

the eight's automatic hit, I assigned the

45:00

five, I signed the five for a

45:02

total of three hits. Okay. If I

45:04

had rolled a 755, I would have

45:06

only assigned two hits because I can

45:08

only assign two die to the actual

45:10

unit. I was sitting there thinking you

45:13

could, and this is probably where it

45:15

was just missed in translation, I'm looking

45:17

at you got a 755, okay, my

45:19

units, all right, you could, I would

45:21

have to take because they were greater

45:23

than the amount on my thing I

45:26

had to assign 7, 5 and 5

45:28

and 5. but I can only assign

45:30

two die. See? The way you're explaining

45:32

it is not making sense to me.

45:34

If you're the attacker, are you the

45:36

attacker or defender? I'm the defender. You're

45:39

a defender. All right. You roll three

45:41

dies. I roll three dies. What are

45:43

the values? This is kind of like

45:45

who's on first. Yeah. What are the

45:47

values? 755. 755. I have two. I

45:50

have a set of archers and pike.

45:52

It doesn't matter what they are. What's

45:54

matter is mine. I look at my

45:56

stats and it's like, oh cool. If

45:58

I roll a five or better, then

46:00

I can assign a die to it.

46:03

And I got two of those that

46:05

I can assign. 755. assign the seven,

46:07

I'll assign the five, the other five

46:09

is wasted. Tony you have to take

46:11

two hits. That's it. Okay. That's it.

46:13

The numbers, your numbers, seven, five, whatever

46:16

yours, don't matter at that point. You

46:18

have to absorb two hits. Either you're

46:20

going to peel off one of your

46:22

little cardboard pieces, representing a unit, or

46:24

you're going to have to use disorder

46:27

tokens to soak up that damage. So

46:29

you don't have to pull it off.

46:31

Now, an 855, the 8 is an

46:33

automatic kit. It's going to be put

46:35

on a unit. It's just a hit.

46:37

The eight is put off to the

46:40

side. I assign the five to one

46:42

of my little cardboard units. Another five

46:44

to a cardboard units. Tony you have

46:46

three hits. Absorb from however you want.

46:48

Okay. So I would pill off one

46:50

of the top guys and one of

46:53

the other guys gets a hit. It

46:55

depends. Because some units can absorb more.

46:57

But you're saying that you can say,

46:59

all right, you need to assign me,

47:01

the defender has to assign that. There's

47:03

three hits. You assign them. Yep. And

47:06

you must start at the top of

47:08

your unit. The top most piece of

47:10

cardboard, you can't assign it anywhere. It's

47:12

always got to go at the front.

47:14

That's where the rank and file thing

47:17

is. These first guys are taking all

47:19

this damage. And if ever all the

47:21

units are removed, you immediately must discard

47:23

it from the game and you must

47:25

draw a card. So that forces you

47:27

to draw a card at that point.

47:30

Yeah, I think it loses me in

47:32

the attorney's leg. You set it off

47:34

to the side. Basically, I keep, of

47:36

all the games we play, and that's

47:38

because of all of what we do.

47:40

You got three hits, you have to

47:43

assign three hits. That's the way I

47:45

look at this. Regardless, if it's an

47:47

eight or whatever, it's going to be

47:49

assigned. to assign. No, you're not, you're,

47:51

you're, I'm assigning dice to determine the

47:53

number of hits. I'm telling you how

47:56

many hits you have to absorb. Based

47:58

on the value on your tactics. How

48:00

I, how I got those hits doesn't

48:02

matter. It's just you got three hits.

48:04

It could have come from eights. It

48:07

could have come from the fact that

48:09

I had to, I had the right

48:11

values to assign. You are assigning them

48:13

based on the values on your card.

48:15

Yes. So that you're able to do

48:17

that. And I think that's where I'm

48:20

losing the translation. We play this multiple

48:22

times. How do you not get this?

48:24

Because I let you do it. I

48:26

let you do it. I let you

48:28

do it. I let you do it.

48:30

I mean, once again, you kept saying

48:33

this because I wasn't cluing in. I

48:35

would just, I mean, I'll be honest.

48:37

I was just rolling dice and hoping

48:39

somebody's name got taken. I, you know,

48:41

okay, you would go to the sign,

48:43

sign, sign, sign. I was like, okay,

48:46

that's where you knewing the game better

48:48

than I did. I was like, okay,

48:50

this is an auto play. This is

48:52

cool. I like this. You know, I

48:54

don't have to worry about it. Hey,

48:57

it's not an auto play because when

48:59

it came to your turn. Well, what

49:01

I'm saying for me, I just roll

49:03

and die. And as long

49:05

as you say, okay, well, that die

49:07

is greater than that and this die

49:09

is less than that. So these are

49:12

two hits because I can only assign

49:14

to these two. But guess what? If

49:16

that door was an eight, you get

49:18

to sign three hits. Right. Yep. The

49:20

eight. I understand the eight is an

49:22

auto hit. It doesn't have to, when

49:24

you say a sign, it's not assigned

49:26

to the defender, it's assigned to the

49:29

attacker. And assigned is to be able

49:31

to take credit for it being a

49:33

hit. Yes, you will actually take a

49:35

physical die and put it beside the

49:37

cardboard to represent this die is going

49:39

to generate a hit. This die is

49:41

going to generate a hit. The eight

49:44

over here also generated a hit. So

49:46

this is how we're going to wrap

49:48

this up. Hold on. I got to

49:50

talk about the rallying part because this

49:52

is extremely important. You're at a disk.

49:54

What do you do? On your turn,

49:56

you can take a rally, forces you

49:59

to draw a card. what you're going

50:01

to do is take all the order

50:03

tokens off of your units, bring them

50:05

back to your board. Any units have

50:07

disorder assigned to them, and these order

50:09

on one side, disorder on the other.

50:11

If you used any of those tokens

50:13

as disorder to absorb hits, they flip

50:15

over to the order side, but they

50:17

stay on the unit. You don't get

50:19

to pull those back yet. It will

50:21

take one more rally to pull those

50:23

back. But that also means when you

50:25

go to assign or activate that unit,

50:27

there's already an order token on there

50:29

making it more expensive to activate the

50:31

next turn. All this comes into play

50:33

at this point. So you've got to

50:35

try to go as far as you

50:37

can without rallying. Because again, if I

50:40

have, during a rally, I have to

50:42

draw a card, but if my deck

50:44

is empty, shake hands game over. Just,

50:46

okay, rallying, flip the little disc over.

50:48

I'm with you. Trust me, we played

50:50

this multiple times. We ain't making this

50:52

up here. We actually sat and cued

50:54

over and played it. Maybe Tony didn't

50:56

play that well and I won easily,

50:58

but now I think I understand why.

51:00

I guess I just didn't teach it

51:02

well. I don't, I mean, there is,

51:04

you know, it's a strategy game. Oh,

51:06

100% it's mimicking a miniature game without

51:08

miniatures. Right. Okay, the dice, it's important

51:10

how you to assign them. Okay, I

51:12

get that. And I guess it was

51:14

just one of those things that, you

51:16

know, it was kind of just on

51:18

rails for me at one time. of,

51:20

okay, I've got to be able to

51:23

move this to defend, and then I

51:25

was just rolling dice, and I guess

51:27

maybe, you know, oh, I need to

51:29

bring these guys over for the strategy,

51:31

but I guess it kind of just

51:33

washed over me? I mean, it was

51:35

fun, don't get me wrong, it was

51:37

a fun little game, I appreciate what

51:39

it was accomplishing, all right? I did

51:41

find that some of the card strategies

51:43

weren't very beneficial to me, okay? So

51:45

also just an aside the cards themselves

51:47

have text on them and they have

51:49

trigger abilities that says hey if this

51:51

happens you can use this card to

51:53

do that it could be to re-roll

51:55

something it could be to do attack

51:57

because if somebody attacks you and you

51:59

still got units left you get to

52:01

counter attack and deal damage back some

52:03

of those like you attack first in

52:06

that situation some maybe let you go

52:08

twice in a row every faction is

52:10

going to play a little bit differently

52:12

every unit is going to be different

52:14

for a faction one of them's got

52:16

war elephants you know the Romans have

52:18

the you know the cavalry and stuff

52:20

so there's just every faction is totally

52:22

unique. and the cards are random when

52:24

you get them, the first six. I

52:26

mean, you get, you shuffle them, you

52:28

draw six. So you may, like I

52:30

had one where it didn't really matter.

52:32

So it was easy for me to

52:34

say, okay, I could discard this to

52:36

be able to play, you know, an

52:38

extra dice. Great little game to mimic

52:40

that miniature field to it, as well

52:42

as easy to transport. Oh

52:45

yeah, versus a whole bunch of miniatures.

52:47

It had a big battlefield. And we

52:49

talked about Palamora, who's the designer. He's

52:51

done Blitzkrieg, which we liked, Libertalia, Ethnos.

52:54

So he's one of those that we've

52:56

always had interest in. And the art

52:58

in this is amazing. It's by Roland

53:00

McDonald, who does all the Indaunted series.

53:03

So when you see the art on

53:05

this box, that looks familiar. This because

53:07

it's the same guy that did the

53:09

And Daunted series. So this game can

53:12

play up to four players. You can

53:14

have basically two on each side of

53:16

the table to play together. I think

53:19

for me, it's always going to be

53:21

two players. It's kind of like the

53:23

head-to-head thing. And it's kind of like

53:25

the head-to-head thing. And it is something

53:28

that's going to set up easily and

53:30

play easily in 30 minutes. There's also

53:32

rules for I'm going to create my

53:34

own. There is luck of the die.

53:37

Sometimes the die just does not go

53:39

your way. Tony in our second game,

53:41

it seemed like I could not miss.

53:43

It was tons of it. One time

53:46

I rolled three eights. That's right. I

53:48

didn't have to do anything. I just

53:50

pilled people off and threw them away.

53:52

So if this sounds, I know this

53:55

was a lot and probably everybody's going,

53:57

I have no idea what you said.

53:59

It's not as complicated as what we

54:01

made it out to be. rules are

54:04

online. Go read the rules. It has

54:06

really good examples of how combat and

54:08

everything works. It is a very strategic

54:10

little game. This is Battalion War of

54:13

the Agents from Osprey Games and designer

54:15

Palau Mori. Five

54:20

Minute Initiative begins in three, two, one.

54:23

One of my favorite games was Thunder

54:25

Road and then Restoration Games came out

54:27

and said, hey, we're gonna bring Thunder

54:29

Road back to the table for everybody.

54:31

They revamped it and they've got expansions

54:33

coming out all over the place and

54:35

one of them is Thunder Road vendetta

54:38

carnival of chaos. designed by Noah Cohen,

54:40

Rob Dob, what a hack, Davia. Justin

54:42

D. Jacobson and Brian Neff, I'm kidding

54:44

Rob, still love you buddy. Like he

54:46

listens. Like he listens, yeah. Yeah, right.

54:48

So Thunder Road, Carnival Kayas, best way

54:51

to summarize this game in Tony's speak

54:53

is you're racing to the center to

54:55

a big, oh. The word just left

54:57

me. The junk yard battle. Oh my

54:59

gosh. Oh, what's the name? A derby.

55:01

Yeah. A big old derby. That's what

55:04

you're doing here. You are battling one

55:06

another in a big derby to score

55:08

some points so that you are the

55:10

winner at the game and survive as

55:12

long as you can. I mean, well,

55:14

the way the game ends, if someone

55:17

is eliminated, or, which is one of

55:19

the nice things I like about this,

55:21

there's a timing mechanism with Tina cards

55:23

that will be flipped over at the

55:25

end of each round after everybody has

55:27

gone, and it will give special advantages

55:30

or maybe do something different to the

55:32

game, change some of the rules or

55:34

whatever. So that is carnival of chaos

55:36

by Restoration Games. Did I get it

55:38

done in five minutes, Marty? You got

55:40

done well under five minutes yet. So

55:43

you got this. So we're done with

55:45

racing to who can finish first. Now

55:47

it's almost like you got like thing.

55:49

You're in an arena, you're going around,

55:51

there are tokens on the board that

55:53

when you land on them, you can

55:56

get a special weapon, and these weapons

55:58

are really, really cool. They're extremely useful.

56:00

You've still got the three cars. work

56:02

the exact same way they do in

56:04

Thunder Road vendetta when you run into

56:06

somebody or go on top of somebody,

56:09

you have the same dice that you're

56:11

going to roll and everything like that.

56:13

But once you're in that center spot,

56:15

you can't leave and you're just going

56:17

around trying to position yourself to see

56:19

if you can take out somebody. You

56:22

do have to be careful Tony because

56:24

you have these columns that can potentially

56:26

pop up from out of the ground

56:28

and if your car is on one

56:30

of those columns, boom! you're gone, you're

56:32

out of here sort of deal. And

56:35

so the Tina cards is the one

56:37

that will determine where those columns pop

56:39

off. At the end of the round,

56:41

if you're on these little spotlight spaces,

56:43

you're gonna get scrap. Because it's all

56:45

about the scrap, because you're beating up

56:48

people and you're trying to earning as

56:50

much scrap as you can when you

56:52

deal damage to them, you can earn

56:54

scrap or you're gonna earn scrap. So

56:56

that's the resource you're kind of gather

56:58

during this game here. Right. And the

57:01

chopper is even flying into the arena.

57:03

So it's very important that, you know,

57:05

how did they change it up from

57:07

the regular Thunder Road? Marty sums it

57:09

up very well, but it's not a

57:11

race anymore. Set up, I do like

57:14

the fact that everybody is racing into

57:16

the arena. And so you've got battles

57:18

going on right then. You still have

57:20

the various advantages you have on the

57:22

road. So everything you know about Thunder

57:24

Road, you're applying here. You've just got

57:27

some new mechanics and some, you know,

57:29

get the scrap. The same things that

57:31

occur in Thunder Road occur here where

57:33

maybe some bad dice rolls are taking

57:35

you out. It doesn't seem right that

57:37

a heavy can get flipped by a

57:39

small, but sometimes it can happen. Hey,

57:42

maybe a copter can, how can a

57:44

copter miss a person right in front

57:46

of him? I have no idea, but

57:48

it can happen. Welcome to the dice

57:50

world and how the randomnessation in the

57:52

game will come in and bite you

57:55

in the butt when you're playing. it

57:57

something I want? I do like the

57:59

fact that it makes it strictly what

58:01

takes away from the race and I

58:03

do like the fact that they kept

58:05

a timing mechanism like they did in

58:08

the Thunder Road Vendant original. Yeah, and

58:10

again, they've added in these weapons, you've

58:12

got these little party favorite tokens that

58:14

are kind of also a one-time use

58:16

that you can, that you can pick

58:18

up during the course of the game.

58:21

So it is different. If you have

58:23

third or road fended and you think,

58:25

well, why do I need this? Because

58:27

it does feel different. The whole goal

58:29

of the game is different. It's not

58:31

about the racing. It's about trying to

58:34

deal as much damage you can. Protect

58:36

yourself and collect yourself and collect that

58:38

scrap. So for me. If you're a

58:40

fan of Thunder Road vendetta, this belongs

58:42

in your collection because it's something different.

58:44

It does add a fifth player car

58:47

and everything in there too. So you

58:49

can just have total chaos. I wonder

58:51

what that many players are going to

58:53

be a little too chaotic in there.

58:55

But yeah, so I dig it. So

58:57

that is Thunder Road Fandena Carnival of

59:00

Chaos from Restoration Games. Five minute initiative

59:02

is complete. Hey

59:11

y'all, Agnasi came out and put

59:13

out a newsletter just recently. In

59:15

fact, if you're not subscribed to

59:17

the newsletter, do so. He's gonna

59:19

put that out every Friday. Talking

59:21

about the big games of the

59:23

year, Robinson Crusoe always does well.

59:25

It's available now over shop portal.com.

59:27

New game wise. AI Space puzzle

59:29

was a big hit for them.

59:31

It did really well at GenCon.

59:33

Tony was out there pushing it

59:35

every day at the booth and

59:37

a lot of people really enjoyed

59:39

that game. So that's available out

59:41

there too. The new Thorga is

59:43

also out there. Got the expansion

59:45

to Imperial Miners. Brand new Desert

59:47

Tribe with Nureshima Hacks. All this

59:49

stuff is available on the shop

59:51

portal games.com website. You can get

59:53

the stuff in time for the

59:55

holidays. In fact, honestly, AI Space

59:57

puzzle is the. co-op game to

59:59

play this holiday. You can go

1:00:01

out and check our previous review

1:00:03

on it. We really enjoyed it.

1:00:05

We think you will too to

1:00:07

find out more. Head over to

1:00:09

shop portal games.com. Now

1:00:12

typically we don't do this y'all. Typically when

1:00:14

we have a review of a game, it's

1:00:17

one game. But Tony, you and I recently

1:00:19

played a game on the same night that

1:00:21

kind of had the same sort of feel.

1:00:23

It was a tableau building game with cards

1:00:26

where each of us were trying to build

1:00:28

a three by three tableau. and get the

1:00:30

most victory points. And these cards were of

1:00:32

different characters, both games, kind of had characters

1:00:34

on the cards and putting the cards down

1:00:37

a certain way in your three by three

1:00:39

grid would potentially get you victory points. So

1:00:41

I thought, why don't we just talk about

1:00:43

each of these? Kind of comparing how they're

1:00:46

different and then let people decide, hey, maybe

1:00:48

this one sounds something I'd be interested in

1:00:50

over the other one or maybe there's a

1:00:52

spot for both of them on yourself. Right.

1:00:54

And when you say get the victory points,

1:00:57

that's one of the biggest difference between these

1:00:59

two games is how the victory points were

1:01:01

done during the game. One was at the

1:01:03

end and one was during. And so when

1:01:06

we talk about them, I mean, I think

1:01:08

that's very important that we point that out.

1:01:10

But yeah, hey, guess what? The most number,

1:01:12

the biggest amount of victory points was the

1:01:14

winner. Imagine that. Here we go. So one

1:01:17

of them was Castle combo by Gregory. And

1:01:19

Pandasors. Why can they be gee-g not just

1:01:21

put the one that I'm supposed to reference

1:01:23

in front? Should I write a letter? I

1:01:26

think Pandasors brought it over here. Yeah. So

1:01:28

that one's really got QCRs to it. So

1:01:30

that's a cast of combo. And then the

1:01:32

second one was from a new company. Go

1:01:34

ahead, sir. This was Yiro from designer Masado

1:01:37

Yusugi, and this is from the new company

1:01:39

Play to Z. Which is the new company

1:01:41

from Zev. It used to be with Z-Man

1:01:43

games. I know Stephen Bonacourt is part of

1:01:46

this too. So they've kind of coming out

1:01:48

the line of games. they sent us

1:01:50

check out too and

1:01:52

I thought too. And are

1:01:54

so similar are don't

1:01:57

we just play them

1:01:59

at the same time

1:02:01

and see how they

1:02:03

work play them at just talk

1:02:06

about and combo real

1:02:08

quick let's just talk about castle

1:02:10

First, real teach. Okay, castle

1:02:12

combo. me quick teach. So you got

1:02:14

combo Love and castle I've got to build

1:02:16

a three by three grid. to the

1:02:19

way I'm going to do that grid.

1:02:21

And going to be drafting to do that is

1:02:23

I am from the be drafting on where

1:02:25

the based is sitting. Cause

1:02:27

there's two rows. is sitting. There's the

1:02:29

what I I would call the and then

1:02:31

then the castle folk. Yeah, you call you

1:02:33

call the village and the the folk is

1:02:35

what you'd call. William, I like townsfolk. I

1:02:37

I think townsfolk is better. It's

1:02:39

not It's not makes them seem kind

1:02:41

of demeaning. But anyway. But anyway, me

1:02:44

me alone. So you've got

1:02:46

village and castle where the where

1:02:48

the messenger is, you may pick from

1:02:50

that. you will place that you

1:02:52

will place that person into your

1:02:54

grid. You may be collecting

1:02:56

some coins, depending on some text

1:02:58

on the card. Then. next person goes.

1:03:00

The The messenger may move depends on whether

1:03:02

it's on the on if it's on the Pick

1:03:05

a card, and you do this nine times.

1:03:07

this nine There you go, that's

1:03:09

the game. game. Yeah, and literally

1:03:11

on the cards will tell you, if this

1:03:13

if this card's placed in this

1:03:15

particular spot, it's it's to earn you victory points.

1:03:17

So So all cards cards have shields in

1:03:19

the upper right -hand corner. So maybe

1:03:21

there's one card that says, okay, for

1:03:23

for every of this particular type of

1:03:25

shield that's in this row, you're

1:03:27

gonna get three points. So obviously what

1:03:29

you're gonna be looking for if

1:03:31

you have that in play for, trying

1:03:33

to draft those cards and get them

1:03:35

there. to draft of these cards have and

1:03:37

get to generate victory points. have different playing

1:03:40

the game, you're trying to develop a

1:03:42

strategy. So as I've already got this one, then

1:03:44

I'm going to start searching for this

1:03:46

one. And you also have a key resource

1:03:48

that you can collect over the course

1:03:50

of the game. At the beginning of

1:03:52

your turn, you can one. key to either

1:03:54

move the a key to the other row, whether

1:03:56

it be from the to village, village to

1:03:59

castle, the beginning can turn. to wipe the three

1:04:01

cards from the market and draw three

1:04:03

new ones from the deck. And at

1:04:05

that point, you must buy a card.

1:04:07

Now, there is a cost associated with

1:04:09

a card in gold. If you don't

1:04:11

have enough gold to buy any of

1:04:13

them, then what you have to do

1:04:15

is take the face-down card off the

1:04:17

top of the deck and put it

1:04:19

into your tableau below and it will

1:04:21

immediately give you six money and two

1:04:23

keys, but that's not going to do

1:04:25

you much good for scoring. Unless Tony,

1:04:27

I think you actually had a card.

1:04:29

That said, it would get victory points

1:04:31

if you had any of those face-down

1:04:33

cards, right? That's right. For every face-down

1:04:35

card, I'd get victory points. So all

1:04:37

these cards, I mean, have that capability.

1:04:39

Some way you're going to school, some

1:04:41

of them may say, hey, if you

1:04:43

don't have this type of guild person,

1:04:45

this type of shield, you get some

1:04:47

good old victory points there at the

1:04:49

end. Or maybe, hey, if you've got

1:04:51

so many of these people in this

1:04:53

row in this row and column, you're

1:04:55

going to get victory points. So it's

1:04:57

very important to say, okay, what strategy

1:04:59

am I going to go with as

1:05:01

well as, oh look, Marty's going for

1:05:03

that strategy. Man, I really don't want

1:05:05

to do this, but you know what?

1:05:07

I think I'm going to wipe this

1:05:09

row so Marty can't get this very

1:05:11

special card. So there is some hate

1:05:13

drafting going on here. I love hate

1:05:15

drafting. I love looking because it keeps

1:05:17

you engaged. You're kind of looking around

1:05:19

seeing what other people are doing. I

1:05:21

mean, we saw that with Burke a

1:05:23

lot, right? I mean, he's like had

1:05:25

this thing where if he got like

1:05:27

two of these shields, it was going

1:05:29

to be worth a lot of points.

1:05:31

So you and I was trying to

1:05:33

wipe the rows to be worth a

1:05:35

lot of points. So you and I

1:05:37

was trying to wipe the rows. And

1:05:39

if you had this particular type of

1:05:41

card and play, it may say it

1:05:43

may say, it. car too. So we

1:05:45

also found those very valuable. Right. I

1:05:47

mean, I'm not, there's not a lot

1:05:49

to really go over here. I mean,

1:05:51

there's special cards that have special abilities

1:05:53

to them that give you the victory

1:05:56

points. Some cards are like one game,

1:05:58

like one of them is, you know,

1:06:00

money became a tight resource. I found

1:06:02

out. You know, I found out it

1:06:04

was very. but there was this one,

1:06:06

there was this one card that it

1:06:08

was like, you get a coin for

1:06:10

every slot that's full on the board.

1:06:12

I was like, oh, that's, that was

1:06:14

a benefit of one. There was one

1:06:16

card that you got a coin for

1:06:18

every empty spot on the board. So

1:06:20

if you got that early in the

1:06:22

game, it would get you a lot

1:06:24

of money. So anyway, you're going to

1:06:26

play until everybody's put down nine cards

1:06:28

and then you're going to walk through

1:06:30

each of the cards, figure out your

1:06:32

victory points. There's a nice little app

1:06:34

on BGG that will ask, you know,

1:06:36

what does each card give you a

1:06:38

point value, add them up, and then

1:06:40

you're done. Now, compare this to Yero.

1:06:42

And in this game, you've got a

1:06:44

player board in front of you with

1:06:46

two markers on it that's going to

1:06:48

mark magic magic and technology. In this

1:06:50

game, you're also trying to get victory

1:06:52

points, but what we found was a

1:06:54

lot of the victory points come during

1:06:56

the game. Because you're going to draw

1:06:58

cards into your hand, so there's new

1:07:00

market in here, you're playing with cards

1:07:02

from your hand, you can discard as

1:07:04

many cards as you want, draw back

1:07:06

up to five, and then you go

1:07:08

to the recruit phase. And this is

1:07:10

kind of all done simultaneously. You can

1:07:12

either pay the money for two cards

1:07:14

to put them into play. Again, you're

1:07:16

trying to build a three by three

1:07:18

grid. The way you build the grid

1:07:20

is the same for both. You must

1:07:22

place Foggly to an existing card. You

1:07:24

can play two cards. You can play

1:07:26

one card at a discount of one

1:07:28

gold or play a card and get

1:07:30

a gold back. or you can play

1:07:32

no cards and just get two gold

1:07:34

in case you're running short on money.

1:07:36

Now here's the kind of unique thing

1:07:38

here. You go into the combat phase.

1:07:40

Each of the character cards that you

1:07:42

play is going to have a combat

1:07:44

value in the upper right of the

1:07:46

card and you're going to look at

1:07:48

the tops of each of the columns

1:07:50

of your three by three grid, you're

1:07:52

going to sum up the combat values

1:07:54

of those and compare to the other

1:07:56

players around the table. And in our

1:07:58

case, whoever got the most got five

1:08:00

points and second place got three and

1:08:02

the person got zero. And Tony, we

1:08:04

found that was probably one of the

1:08:06

best ways to get points during the

1:08:08

game was was do this combat. So

1:08:10

you want to make sure have high

1:08:12

value cards at the top of your

1:08:14

columns. Then you go into the production

1:08:16

phase, every card on the table. If

1:08:18

there's a gear, it's going to give

1:08:20

you something. You look at the income

1:08:22

phase, there's a special icon. If you

1:08:24

have any of the cards of this

1:08:26

income icon, it's going to give you

1:08:28

money. And finally, victory point phase, if

1:08:30

there's any cards that have a little

1:08:32

victory point icon, it's going to give

1:08:34

you victory points. So these are multi-use

1:08:36

cards that can do one of several

1:08:38

things, good at fighting, good at producing

1:08:40

something, good at income, or victory points.

1:08:42

You're going to do this over and

1:08:44

over again till either somebody gets to

1:08:46

40 points or gets nine cards in

1:08:49

their tablet. Now, here's the challenge with

1:08:51

this one. Now, in the Castle Combat

1:08:53

one, when you place the cars and

1:08:55

you're building your grid, you need to

1:08:57

make sure various rows and columns are

1:08:59

lining up to give you victory points

1:09:01

at the end of the game. Here,

1:09:03

there is a link bonus. On each

1:09:05

of these cars, on each side, there

1:09:07

are these two colors based on the

1:09:09

guilds that they are part of. And

1:09:11

if you are able to align three

1:09:13

of the same colors, and either a

1:09:15

column or a row, then you will

1:09:17

get the bonus listed at the bottom

1:09:19

of the card. So you can really

1:09:21

mess yourself up. And the reason why

1:09:23

I say this, I did this, the

1:09:25

times we played is if you concentrate

1:09:27

way too much on the link bonus

1:09:29

and I locked myself into this, not

1:09:31

thinking about the importance of the strength.

1:09:33

during the battle. So I had shut

1:09:35

myself down and being able, because one

1:09:37

of the things you can do is

1:09:39

you might want to shift where your

1:09:41

three by three table is. You know,

1:09:43

like, hey, I've got a row of

1:09:45

three, but if I put this one

1:09:47

card on top, then it's going to

1:09:49

shift my capability, my power on this

1:09:51

column. And you may need to have

1:09:53

flexibility as your... Building this and it's

1:09:55

important that you're able to pay for

1:09:57

these cards as well Okay, so you

1:09:59

need to keep that amount. How am

1:10:01

I going to get this money out

1:10:03

there a lot? I don't say more

1:10:05

strategy both had strategy you know, but

1:10:07

there was a lot more thinking going

1:10:09

on at the table this one. One

1:10:11

reason why is because of these two

1:10:13

additional stats, the magic and power, and

1:10:15

on some of the cards, during the

1:10:17

production phase, it may give you the

1:10:19

ability to increase your magic or technology.

1:10:21

And where that may come into play,

1:10:23

there may be some cards that say,

1:10:25

hey, you're going to get two victory

1:10:27

points per magic level you have. or

1:10:29

two victory points per technology level you

1:10:31

have. Or maybe the strength of the

1:10:33

card is based on your technology or

1:10:35

magic. It's a base of two times

1:10:37

whatever your current magic level is or

1:10:39

something like that. So that's just another

1:10:41

thing that you gotta consider during the

1:10:43

game is this magic of technology which

1:10:45

might be able to also produce victory

1:10:47

points each round if you decide maybe

1:10:49

not to go the combat route. So

1:10:51

of the two, I know where my

1:10:53

preference is not because one's a better

1:10:55

game than the other. It was just

1:10:57

that, I don't know, I like the

1:10:59

simplicity of it and that was the

1:11:01

castle combo. Okay? You know, but the

1:11:03

reason why I'm saying that is because

1:11:05

I know if I brought this to

1:11:07

the table and tried to teach it

1:11:09

to Donna or my daughter and her

1:11:11

husband, I know they would grasp this

1:11:13

one because that's who this game is

1:11:15

for. Where the other one I felt

1:11:17

was more of that gamers game. You

1:11:19

have my exact same conclusion. Which game

1:11:21

you want to play with may depend

1:11:23

on the group that it's sitting around

1:11:25

the table with you. Both of these

1:11:27

are going to play in under 30

1:11:29

minutes. They're a very easy teach, but

1:11:31

because of Yero being about, oh well

1:11:33

I've got magic, I've got technology, I

1:11:35

can combo these cards together, try to

1:11:37

get matching colors, combat comes into play.

1:11:39

It's more thinky. But if I was

1:11:42

teaching my family for the holidays, I'm

1:11:44

pulling out castle combo. Because it's literally

1:11:46

buy one of these cards, put it

1:11:48

down into your tableau, once we all

1:11:50

get nine, that triggers the end of

1:11:52

the game. And I also think that's

1:11:54

easy to follow too. It's like, okay,

1:11:56

we'll just calculate points at the end

1:11:58

of the game. Well, the other one

1:12:00

has these structured phases you're going through,

1:12:02

the draw, the recruit, etc. may decide

1:12:04

not even to put somebody into play

1:12:06

because you're short on money in euro

1:12:08

just so you can get too gold.

1:12:10

Whereas with Castle combo, you always have

1:12:12

to put a card into play, even

1:12:14

if it's one of those face-down cards

1:12:16

which will actually give you money in

1:12:18

case that you need it. Similar style

1:12:20

of games, but I do think they

1:12:22

work for different audiences in different ways,

1:12:24

like you said. I agree. So for

1:12:26

me, Castle combo, for the family, for

1:12:28

you and I sitting at a table

1:12:30

getting ready for Game Night, we'll throw

1:12:32

this one on the, Yero on the

1:12:34

table. 100% agree. Castle combo, Yero, two

1:12:36

similar style games, two different audiences, but

1:12:38

both really well done. Five

1:12:43

Minute Initiative begins in three, two, one.

1:12:45

I've got so many of these little

1:12:47

card games. I just love ending the

1:12:49

night with little card game Tony and

1:12:51

we just got a game from Devere

1:12:54

games and designer Eugenie Castano and Eloy

1:12:56

Puzatas called The Lie. In this game,

1:12:58

you've got cards of various colors and

1:13:00

numbers that you're going to spread all

1:13:02

over the table, face down, and we're

1:13:04

just going to start picking up cards

1:13:06

till you've got 12 in your hand.

1:13:08

But the kicker is, Tony, is that

1:13:10

the card is a lie. On the

1:13:12

back of the card is going to

1:13:14

show a number and a color, but

1:13:16

on the other side, one of those

1:13:18

is wrong. It's either not the matching

1:13:20

color or it's not the same number.

1:13:22

The number can go from one to

1:13:24

four. And when you pick up a

1:13:26

card, you're going to put it to

1:13:28

the left or right of any card

1:13:30

that's already in your hand. So you're

1:13:32

building out this hand to 12. And

1:13:34

then once you've got 12 cards, you're

1:13:36

going to start playing the game. There's

1:13:38

going to be a start player that's

1:13:40

going to take matching cards of any

1:13:42

set and put them on the table.

1:13:44

The person to my left. put down

1:13:46

something higher than 31. And if they

1:13:48

can, then they do. And then we

1:13:50

keep going until after everybody passes. Whoever

1:13:52

has the highest basically will go first

1:13:54

the next time. Those cards are kind

1:13:56

of just discarded out of the game.

1:13:58

You're going to continue playing this until

1:14:00

somebody is out of cards. And then

1:14:02

at that point, the play continues till

1:14:04

two other people out of cards are

1:14:06

playing with four players. And the person

1:14:08

who finished first is going to go

1:14:10

to the center of the table where

1:14:12

these cards are still spread out. and

1:14:14

you're gonna pick up three cards. Person

1:14:16

who came in second, picks up two,

1:14:19

and the third takes up one. The

1:14:21

front side of the card will dictate

1:14:23

how many points you're gonna get at

1:14:25

the end of the game and just

1:14:27

keep this face down. You're gonna rinse

1:14:29

and repeat a certain number of rounds.

1:14:31

Count up your cards, person most points

1:14:33

wins. So a couple of things to

1:14:35

point out here in the lie. You

1:14:37

can only play up to three cards

1:14:39

and they can't come from anywhere in

1:14:41

your hand. As Marty, you was saying,

1:14:43

you've got to make sure that you

1:14:45

gather the cards that are together. Now

1:14:47

it doesn't mean that you always have

1:14:49

to pull from the right or from

1:14:51

the left. You can pull any three

1:14:53

as long as there are a matching

1:14:55

color. That's why when you're pulling these

1:14:57

cards as important. I really need a

1:14:59

green here. Oh, oh, that card's got

1:15:01

a green back. And it's a one,

1:15:03

is it a one or is it

1:15:05

a green, is it a green one

1:15:07

or is it going to be a

1:15:09

different four of a different color? That's

1:15:11

where the fun of the game is

1:15:13

because that's when people start screaming like,

1:15:15

no, I didn't want that card and

1:15:17

they don't know what to do with

1:15:19

it. Now, and at the end of

1:15:21

the game, when people start screaming like,

1:15:23

no, I didn't want that card and

1:15:25

they don't know what to do with

1:15:27

it. So yes, it's actually a one.

1:15:29

That's that sort of deal. But everybody

1:15:31

else on the table sees that four

1:15:33

and thinks oh that four yellow is

1:15:35

now out of play or is it?

1:15:37

We don't know. So you know there's

1:15:39

a little gamemanship in that. So this

1:15:41

game reminded me of Scout and having

1:15:44

to do the runs or doing the

1:15:46

latter portion. And I also know that

1:15:48

at no time can anybody have a.

1:15:50

when they pull three. So there's some

1:15:52

strategy on which type of cards you

1:15:54

want to play or what colors. But

1:15:56

when you're looking at those people's cards

1:15:58

from the back, you're like, well, is

1:16:00

that, does he have green in that

1:16:02

row? Or is it all those numbers?

1:16:04

You can sit there and look at

1:16:06

each other's hands, but you've got no

1:16:08

clue. You don't know what they're doing

1:16:10

until they pull those cards out and

1:16:12

they put down that color or those

1:16:14

possible road. You're like, oh, wait a

1:16:16

minute, he only has that. So does

1:16:18

that mean the next card? A lot

1:16:20

of stuff can go on here with

1:16:22

the lie. It's pure chaos. I mean,

1:16:24

there's no strategy here. It's just have

1:16:26

fun with these cards and hope that

1:16:28

you can outplay your fellow players with

1:16:30

making the right combos as you're building

1:16:32

them. Yeah, and as you, like you

1:16:34

said, as you're putting cards into your

1:16:36

hand, I may draw a blue and

1:16:38

a blue. It's like, it'll be cool

1:16:40

to get another blue and then it's

1:16:42

like red. It's like, well, crap. And

1:16:44

then I draw something that's a blue

1:16:46

and put it on the other side

1:16:48

of the red. Maybe part of the

1:16:50

strategy is, hey, I want to make

1:16:52

sure to get rid of this red

1:16:54

to get my blue cards together. So

1:16:56

you're also trying as you're playing just

1:16:58

trying to undo those gaps between the

1:17:00

colored cards as you play the rounds

1:17:02

to try to get like colors together

1:17:04

so you can play that big number

1:17:06

and try to get rid of cards

1:17:09

as fast as you can. And we

1:17:11

found that sometimes the person when they

1:17:13

had only like one or two cards

1:17:15

left couldn't get rid of those other

1:17:17

cards at that point because everybody else

1:17:19

is able to play higher numbers than

1:17:21

what they can or they can't top

1:17:23

anybody else. Yeah, where they couldn't lead

1:17:25

with that color. You know, that's where

1:17:27

they could not play that color. So,

1:17:29

you know, it's a quick game, easy

1:17:31

to teach. Actually, the more I thought

1:17:33

about, I was like, you know, this

1:17:35

is kind of fun. You know, it

1:17:37

was one of those mindless games, and

1:17:39

it's like, well, you just got to

1:17:41

accept that you may be stuck when

1:17:43

you're pulling these cards, and you're like,

1:17:45

well, dang it, I didn't want that,

1:17:47

I needed, I needed a four, I

1:17:49

needed a four, I needed, I needed

1:17:51

a four, So you know it's it's

1:17:53

one of those things that is part

1:17:55

of the game and hey I like

1:17:57

the lie I don't know about you.

1:17:59

Yeah yeah the lie chaos, like you

1:18:01

said, play up to six players. So

1:18:03

that's kind of a fun, late night

1:18:05

thing, our family thing, just spreading cards

1:18:07

over the table, drafting, having a good

1:18:09

time. That is the lie from Devere.

1:18:11

Five minute initiative is complete. It's

1:18:21

that time of year when you need

1:18:23

to pull that wish list together and

1:18:25

the easiest place to do it is

1:18:27

over at miniature market where you can

1:18:29

build yourself a wish list of games

1:18:31

that you won't. But while you're there...

1:18:33

If you did not sign up for

1:18:35

their newsletter, then you missed a very

1:18:38

special deal and you're too late to

1:18:40

the party and that was their cyber

1:18:42

Monday deals. The reason why I'm bringing

1:18:44

this up is if you didn't sign

1:18:46

up for their newsletter, then you missed

1:18:48

out on all these special deals. But

1:18:50

I will tell you ones that are

1:18:52

going on right now that you can

1:18:54

take advantage of and that is one

1:18:56

that their free shipping threshold is dropping

1:18:58

to $75. $75 Marty! Boo y'all, now

1:19:01

every time something like this happens, I

1:19:03

reach out to all y'all and say,

1:19:05

what do y'all want to order? I

1:19:07

know we just recently placed an order

1:19:09

for stuff. When is the expiration date

1:19:11

on that, sir, for the shipping threshold?

1:19:13

Until the end of the year, sir.

1:19:15

This will run until the end of

1:19:17

the years. Do you know what that

1:19:19

means? That means if you don't get

1:19:21

it. That's right. Bert said he has

1:19:23

some stuff on his Christmas list. That

1:19:26

means if he doesn't get it, we

1:19:28

can place an order and drop that

1:19:30

threshold down the $75 and get our

1:19:32

stuff in that we missed. Because nobody

1:19:34

cares about us and buys what we

1:19:36

want. And I'm going to be honest

1:19:38

with you, two games are going to

1:19:40

hit that $75 threshold. Matter of fact,

1:19:42

I'm looking for a couple right now,

1:19:44

but I got to get them played

1:19:46

before Christmas. Or I need to get

1:19:49

them in before Christmas. So there you

1:19:51

go. When this starts, I'm going to

1:19:53

be going over to miniature market to

1:19:55

order it up. Be sure to go

1:19:57

over to our website and use that

1:19:59

link so that you heard it coming

1:20:01

from us. Also, their flat rate shipping

1:20:03

will be $5.99. that's $5 and 99

1:20:05

cent until the end of the year.

1:20:07

So the threshold 75 and it's only

1:20:09

$5.99? Well it's free, it's free for

1:20:12

75 but only $5.99. Yeah. That's still

1:20:14

a better deal. That's still a good

1:20:16

deal. So maybe you just need a

1:20:18

bunch of dice, maybe you need some

1:20:20

pluck foam that they have over there

1:20:22

which you ordered for me for my

1:20:24

miniatures that I'm putting together right now.

1:20:26

So all this is going on as

1:20:28

well as their backroom deals are still

1:20:30

going on. They still have their advent

1:20:32

calendar and see what that special deal

1:20:35

is. Now keep in mind. that all

1:20:37

this you would know about if you

1:20:39

would just sign up for their newsletter.

1:20:41

So please head over to miniature market.com,

1:20:43

sign up for that newsletter, so you

1:20:45

are aware of all their continuing deals.

1:20:49

All right, did not realize this,

1:20:51

but I shouldn't have changed. Well,

1:20:53

there was a reason why I

1:20:55

named this episode the way I

1:20:58

did, but I did not realize

1:21:00

a while back about four days

1:21:02

ago, from the time of this

1:21:04

recording, Vic Flick passed away at

1:21:06

age 87. And I did not

1:21:08

know what he did, but Marty,

1:21:10

who knows everything, probably does know

1:21:12

what he did. Vic Flick? Uh-uh.

1:21:14

He was the guitarist who played

1:21:16

on iconic James Bond theme songs.

1:21:18

Oh, I saw his passing away.

1:21:20

I didn't know his name. I

1:21:22

didn't either. So he's the one

1:21:24

that did don't do, don't, don't,

1:21:27

don't, do, that part. Nice. Yeah.

1:21:29

So, you know, so we should

1:21:31

have named this one, James Bond

1:21:33

theme songs, but instead I named

1:21:35

it popular, in which I cannot

1:21:37

do like they did. But anyway,

1:21:39

so, you know, I'm always looking

1:21:41

for that type of thing because

1:21:43

it's just little tidbits like that.

1:21:45

But other than that, I mean,

1:21:47

I gotta get ready for Thanksgiving.

1:21:49

I'm sure that you'll be streaming

1:21:51

some WKRP if only God is

1:21:53

My Witness, Turkey's could fly. can

1:21:55

you find it? You can't watch

1:21:58

anywhere. You can't even buy it.

1:22:00

I talked about Blu-rays earlier. You

1:22:02

can't buy it because they don't

1:22:04

have the music license. So that's

1:22:06

what I don't even want. You

1:22:08

just have to watch it on

1:22:10

YouTube, where people have cut it

1:22:12

out and you just watch that

1:22:14

one little segment. Yeah, yeah, we

1:22:16

are recording this even though this

1:22:18

comes out. In December, we are

1:22:20

recording this right before Thanksgiving. So,

1:22:22

yeah. It's the holiday season. and

1:22:25

happy holidays and well okay so I

1:22:27

gotta tell you something I gotta I

1:22:29

gotta miss them so happy holidays while

1:22:31

the Mary bells keep ringing you know

1:22:34

that line okay yeah for years okay

1:22:36

I got a preface something I never

1:22:38

listen to the lyrics I never really

1:22:40

pay attention to what they mean or

1:22:42

what they're what they're about. Vanessa's all

1:22:44

into, oh this is a great story,

1:22:46

I love what this means, I just

1:22:48

listen to the music and lyrics, just

1:22:50

kind of there, I'll sing them, I'll

1:22:53

sing lyrics without realizing what I'm saying.

1:22:55

For years, I never picked up what

1:22:57

that line was saying. Well they said,

1:22:59

while the Marybells keep ringing, I thought

1:23:01

there was something called a Marybell. Isn't

1:23:03

that an ice cream? No, that's Mayfield.

1:23:05

Bluebell. Bluebell. Mayfield, mostly, it's the combination

1:23:07

of the two. Instead of Mary, space

1:23:09

bells, I was thinking there was something

1:23:11

called a Mary bell. I just didn't

1:23:14

know what it was. Hey, that's okay.

1:23:16

I don't know half the lyrics in,

1:23:18

I don't know any lyrics. So at

1:23:20

least you got Mary Bells, I wouldn't

1:23:22

even, I would have said something else.

1:23:24

So yes, gotta get ready, because it

1:23:26

doesn't Whamageddon start pretty soon? Yeah, so

1:23:28

if you wanted, that's actually already started.

1:23:30

So we're doing reverse Whamageddon this year.

1:23:32

What is that you get points for

1:23:35

hearing it? You actually you want to

1:23:37

hear it But you can't purposely listen

1:23:39

to it And we're gonna have a

1:23:41

point tracker where people can say how

1:23:43

I heard it and I get a

1:23:45

point and whoever has the most points

1:23:47

at the end of the season wins

1:23:49

And this is on our disc yes

1:23:51

I may want to click on that

1:23:54

discord symbol and go out there and

1:23:56

pay attention to some of these things

1:23:58

I did not know we were doing

1:24:00

this yeah and in fact it's this

1:24:02

episode releasing so early in December you

1:24:04

can join along so yeah we're gonna

1:24:06

do the reverse instead of freaking out

1:24:08

and trying to avoid it feel free

1:24:10

to listen as much Christmas music as

1:24:12

you want and when you hear it

1:24:15

and start'll cringe and you go I

1:24:17

got a point And this begins after

1:24:19

Thanksgiving or is it December 1st? I

1:24:21

can't remember first. December 1st. December 1st.

1:24:23

All right. Well, which is very close

1:24:25

to after Thanksgiving, by the way. It

1:24:27

is this year, yes. And for the

1:24:29

United States, who celebrates it, you know,

1:24:31

it's right at the end of the

1:24:33

month. All right, well, you know what?

1:24:36

I need to get out of here.

1:24:38

I gotta go take care of some

1:24:40

dogs just like you. I'm babysitting and

1:24:42

they have got their little paws crossed

1:24:44

and they're looking at me like, hey,

1:24:46

it's time to go for a walk.

1:24:48

So I need to go do that.

1:24:50

So I am going to keep rolling

1:24:52

dice and taking names. Hey

1:25:01

y'all, thanks for listening. If you

1:25:03

enjoy the show and want to

1:25:05

support us, you can do so

1:25:07

over at By Me and Moonpie.com,

1:25:10

where all the social media is

1:25:12

just search for Dyson names, subscribe

1:25:14

to our YouTube channel, which also

1:25:16

carries each and every one of

1:25:18

our podcast episodes. Tony, how many

1:25:20

crates does it take to store

1:25:23

all your Christmas decorations? All of

1:25:25

them even the sit-around crap that

1:25:27

I hate putting out? Yes. Three.

1:25:29

Three. You're so lucky. We have

1:25:31

two dedicated storage spaces. We probably

1:25:33

have about 20 to 25. And

1:25:36

that doesn't count all your Halloween

1:25:38

stuff either. It's unreal. You are

1:25:40

the man. Please

1:25:43

Mom, don't send me away. I want to

1:25:46

stay with you. It's only until all this

1:25:48

is over. From Academy Award winner Steve McQueen,

1:25:50

Blitz is a masterpiece. Your son did not

1:25:52

arrive at his destination. You were meant to

1:25:54

be looking after him. Where's my boy? Critics

1:25:56

Ray, Elliot Hevernon. perfect. Seusser Ronan

1:25:59

is superb. I just want to go

1:26:01

on. One of the

1:26:03

most enormous cinematic experiences

1:26:05

in recent history, Blitz, written and

1:26:07

written and directed by

1:26:09

Steve We did PG-13, now now

1:26:11

streaming on Apple TV Plus. Hey

1:26:18

there, I'm I'm Hugh from Poderation and

1:26:20

if you like today's show, why

1:26:22

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1:26:25

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1:26:27

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