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Jack App today. app today. in

1:03

taking names. In this

1:06

episode, the guys keep

1:08

off 2025, which reviews

1:11

for Minos, Don of

1:13

the Bonse, Rez, Arconadillo,

1:16

and Green Masters. And

1:18

you you guessed it, the have

1:21

a New a New to only do

1:23

serious board game reviews. None

1:25

of that other funny business. reviews.

1:28

None of that other

1:30

funny business. Hello

1:37

and welcome to Rolling Dice and

1:39

Taking Names. This is This is episode

1:41

number 340 American Pie. I'm Tony. I'm I'm Tony.

1:43

I'm Marty. I'm surprised we've

1:45

never used this title. I know

1:48

I was very surprised like, okay,

1:50

was like, I okay,

1:52

when I did a

1:54

quick search over in

1:56

the archive file file

1:58

for and Taking Names, it did

2:00

not pop up.

2:02

The Reese archive file,

2:04

that's good. So

2:06

the purpose the... The reason

2:08

why I picked this one is, you

2:10

know, that's a very long, long song. Oh,

2:12

okay. So I was going through the

2:14

lyrics in my mind trying to figure

2:16

out, y'all, so sometimes very tangentially, titles

2:18

are. picked based on something we're going

2:20

to talk about. Right. And so, and sometimes

2:23

we're based on themes of games. We're

2:25

playing song going by, by, by, miss

2:27

American Pie, I drove my Chevy to

2:29

the left. I bet the love you

2:31

buzz your eye. Good old boys. And

2:33

then it's like, well, the song's buddy Holly's

2:35

death. I mean, nothing was coming to

2:37

me, right? And it's cause it's a

2:39

thing. This is year 13. Oh, yes,

2:41

yes, the beginning of year 13. The

2:43

beginning of year 13, so here you

2:45

go, or you know, just when you think

2:47

you're the song, American Pie, it's going

2:49

to end, it does it. Just like

2:51

you would think, Rolling Dicing, taking name

2:53

is going to end, and it doesn't,

2:55

it just keeps on going. Even if

2:57

the levee is dry, we're just going to

3:00

keep coming at you. So it has

3:02

nothing to do with the game

3:04

that we played that we thought

3:06

ran low long. No, it has

3:08

nothing to do with that. It

3:10

was actually, my thought was on

3:12

the 13 year, that's where I

3:14

was going with that. You know,

3:16

something we'll talk about right now

3:18

is, you know, I've just, I

3:20

did something that you've always done,

3:22

and I've gone to the Trans-Siberian

3:24

Orchestra Christmas show here in Charlotte,

3:26

North Carolina, and I was looking

3:28

for their top 10 songs, something

3:30

I can name in after, I'm

3:32

like, these are all Christmas songs,

3:34

this doesn't. fit in anywhere. So

3:36

I'm like, oh, this sucks. Yeah.

3:38

And I'm like, oh, let's just

3:40

go with American Pie, because it's

3:42

a long freaking song. So let

3:44

me ask you, what did you

3:46

think of the Trans-Iberian Orchestra show?

3:48

Well, first off, I had no

3:50

clue going in other than what

3:52

you've said about the visual effects

3:54

and things like that. I knew

3:56

what their music was, and I've

3:58

heard many, many, many tracks. They'll

4:00

rotate through these on their tours,

4:02

so they'll do... one entire album

4:04

and it just so happened this

4:06

year I think was lost Christmas

4:08

Eve thing up that was the

4:10

story this year which is probably

4:12

the most depressing of the three

4:14

yes oh my gosh I kid

4:16

you not when I saw it

4:18

was that story this year I

4:20

said I don't want to go

4:22

I'm it ends up it ends

4:24

up good but it's just a

4:26

very heartwarming kind of sad story

4:28

that's being told basically about a

4:30

special needs child who grows up

4:32

and helps others I guess he

4:34

does and is well I don't

4:36

give it away if you well

4:38

I can because it's been so

4:40

I mean yeah his dad abandons

4:42

him because mom dies on birth

4:44

and you're just like holy cow

4:46

so a couple funny things you'll

4:48

appreciate this so we're sitting there

4:50

and the guy comes out and

4:52

starts talking What is this? I'm

4:55

like, I've never been, I don't

4:57

know, I don't know what's going

4:59

on here. And so it's Donna,

5:01

my mother-in-law, and then of course,

5:03

my daughter and her husband, so

5:05

we're all there, really good seats

5:07

at the Coliseum. We weren't down

5:09

the front row or anything like

5:11

that. We were back a little

5:13

bit from the stage. I couldn't

5:15

really see faces, but you really

5:17

don't need to see faces. So

5:19

the second time he starts talking,

5:21

she goes, is that from Lord

5:23

of the Lord of the rings.

5:27

They're just telling you a Christmas story. And when

5:29

they get us to that part about the mom

5:31

dying, everybody, you could hear the people who didn't

5:33

know it is like a collective. Oh. Throughout the

5:36

whole Coliseum. Because there were a lot of people

5:38

who haven't been. Okay. So I was just like,

5:40

holy cow. I wasn't expecting that. I'm like, well,

5:42

this was heart warming. I mean it ends on

5:44

a good note, I will say. And in the

5:46

second half of the show is, you know, obviously

5:48

just a bunch of their more famous stuff that

5:50

they play and stuff, so. realize that

5:52

they've only done four

5:54

albums because Noah made the

5:57

point he says, I

5:59

only know four of their

6:01

songs. point he says I but

6:03

they've been around since songs I

6:05

said but they've only done

6:07

four albums. 1999 and they've only done

6:09

I think only three of

6:11

them are Christmas. I

6:13

think the fourth one is something

6:16

else, but I don't think it's

6:18

Christmas it's Christmas themed So, yeah, so

6:20

they made those first three starting

6:22

in the 90s to the early 2000s

6:24

and then just basically never made

6:26

any more. Now, when I first

6:28

started seeing them them probably 2005, I

6:30

was seeing the was seeing the people that

6:32

did the original recordings, the the original

6:34

narrators the original singers and everything. and I think,

6:37

I looked at the current band, I

6:39

think only one person is left had this

6:41

tour those had anything to do with

6:43

those original albums. you And I don't know

6:45

if you know this, there's two touring

6:47

companies, one for the East Coast one

6:49

for the West Coast. Bye. the West Coast.

6:51

didn't I didn't know that. know they, you know, know, they

6:53

talked about, Paul O' O'O-Neil, the the founder? Founder.

6:55

Yes, yeah, they talked about talked about that So

6:57

was good to know. That was a

6:59

good backstory. a And there was one

7:01

singer there was that they said had

7:03

been with said had I guess so. the I

7:05

guess a singer for the singer for

7:08

been there since 1999. since 1999,

7:10

that okay. Yeah, and I Yeah, and I

7:12

forget who it was, but they said

7:14

that he's been with them them touring every year.

7:17

year okay. So maybe he's one he's one of

7:19

the original now. I think I think

7:21

Was there a a guitarist, long blonde guy

7:23

that kind of did of of the

7:25

lead guy? the lead guy? think his name's

7:27

like his name's like Chris McAfee or something like that.

7:29

Okay. Did he come out at the

7:31

beginning of the show of the a wearing

7:34

a or some local sports local What

7:36

was it this year? I couldn't see

7:38

it. I was too far back. see

7:40

it. I was too far didn't have like a

7:42

video screen a video screen showing... No, they they

7:44

did not have any people. No, they talked about

7:46

about the, um, how much money they raised, you

7:48

know, a dollar of every ticket

7:51

sold sold a charity and they

7:53

talked about and they over 20 million

7:55

really raised over since 1999 and I'm

7:57

like like, okay, awesome And I I

7:59

forget who they gave it to, but

8:01

yeah. So this is funny and this

8:03

welcome to Rolling Dice where we don't

8:05

talk about board games, we talk about

8:08

other things. But it was interesting to

8:10

me and I haven't been to a

8:12

concert in a very very long time

8:14

and Donna even made this point. She

8:17

goes, why are people getting up out

8:19

of their seats so much? It was

8:21

like being at a Charlotte Hornets basketball

8:23

game. People were constantly going up and

8:26

down the stairs moving, sliding around. a

8:28

five-year-old to this concert at eight o'clock

8:30

at night. That floors me. I'm sorry.

8:32

I'm a cremation. Because there was two

8:35

shows. There was a three o'clock show.

8:37

Do you think they would have taken

8:39

the kids would have gone to the

8:41

early show? Now, the first year I

8:44

saw them, they were a blooming thaw.

8:46

So that's how small it was at

8:48

that time. You know, there wasn't that

8:50

many people going to see them. And

8:53

now they're at our local basketball arena.

8:55

when they come. Yeah, two shows and

8:57

we were near the back area where

8:59

the TSO comes up out of the

9:02

ground and spins around and lights on

9:04

fire and so Donna enjoyed the heat

9:06

from that. The band leader at my

9:08

church went for the first time last

9:11

night and I said, dude, you're going

9:13

to absolutely love it. And he came

9:15

back, he said, that was the craziest

9:17

thing I've ever seen. I said, I

9:20

can never explain. This until somebody experiences

9:22

it. I just say it's sensory overload.

9:24

It's like it's just bombardment of sound

9:26

and light and You know just for

9:29

two two and a half hours. I

9:31

have a long they played. Oh, yeah,

9:33

and I thought Donald's gonna rush the

9:35

stage when they stopped at the end

9:38

of the story She goes is that

9:40

it? It's only been an hour. I

9:42

paid this much for that what? Somebody

9:44

gonna have to give me a refund

9:47

And she's, I'm like, I can't, I'm

9:49

like, I don't know, I hope not.

9:51

And she goes, and then comes, oh,

9:53

and our second part of the show.

9:56

I'm like, okay, thank you. Thank you

9:58

very much. I I mean, I'm

10:00

sure it it seems like year throw

10:02

something new in Do they do things

10:04

like, you know, there's cat over the

10:06

stage or raising platforms or is that sort

10:08

of stuff going going on to it? they had those

10:10

platforms going where they would hook

10:12

in hook in and over the crowd and

10:14

of course, course, walking the crowd and pyrotechnics

10:16

going off, lighting up It was It

10:18

was amazing. The light show, the the video

10:20

screens in the the, you know, I you know,

10:22

I kept looking at the they had and

10:25

I kept that they had and I

10:27

kept thinking, oh, that looks like a

10:29

pattern. That That looks like a a sograta pattern.

10:31

I'm I'm like, oh, this is

10:33

sad. I And I believe to, the

10:35

used to, the last song

10:37

was always the big one, in the

10:39

Christmas Eve that's always Yeah, that's

10:41

always their ripped it again. Absolutely. And there's no

10:44

no came up came up immediately. We're done.

10:46

We're out here. So I'm here. you were, I'm I'm glad

10:48

you were I'm glad you finally got to would

10:50

you do you do it again? I think I

10:52

think done done for the And now that I now that

10:54

I know there's only three three, three, three, albums

10:56

I would not want to go I would

10:58

not want to back. Just just

11:00

because it was very good. I It was very

11:02

good. again. I I don't need to go again. enjoy

11:04

I would recommend if you listen to YouTube go listen

11:07

to YouTube, if do all that stuff. I If you

11:09

enjoy it, a I would think it's a very

11:11

good show to go to, to experience once Yeah, I

11:13

least once. nine or ten years in I

11:15

think we went nine or 10 years in a

11:17

row and it got to the point is

11:19

like, all right, you know, we've kind of seen

11:21

everything they've shown. And then we didn't realize that

11:23

our youngest son has never been. son has So so

11:25

year, We were we probably going to go go

11:28

again, and they always have a they always

11:30

have fan club. A part of their fan

11:32

club, their fan club on being on the mailing

11:34

list. doesn't cost anything, but it gives you

11:36

access to tickets early, to tickets early, which is how

11:38

we usually grab seats, typically on the floor,

11:40

which is what I try to to do. Gotcha.

11:42

Okay, yeah, we Yeah, we went through

11:44

stuff because we went late

11:47

Rebecca said, hey, let's do this. You premium prices

11:49

then, didn't yeah. Well, we didn't pay didn't

11:51

pay premium was, I'll go ahead and say

11:53

premium was was and we got

11:55

it discounted off of off of

11:58

Oh, okay. Okay, so they high. than

12:00

the original price? No, there were open seats.

12:02

Oh, okay, cool. Cool, cool, cool. Yeah, the

12:04

floor was completely full and the lower tier

12:07

was full, but the nosebleeds, no, there was

12:09

plenty of seats to be, and they had

12:11

probably two-thirds of the Colosseum draped off in

12:13

the upper. So there was nobody sitting there.

12:16

Okay. Okay, well I guess, I guess now

12:18

with two shows they can do that. They

12:20

can do that. Yeah, they can do that.

12:22

Hey y'all, we're 12 minutes into the show

12:24

and basically we've given you a long music

12:27

review on Trans-I-Beed Orchestra. Highly recommended if you

12:29

get a chance to see them. It's a

12:31

good show. It's worth, like you said, I

12:33

think it's worth seeing once. Oh yeah, absolutely

12:36

especially. I know this, I'd like to see

12:38

some other new age people that I've always

12:40

listened to at a Christmas like David Lance,

12:42

but I don't think E-tours or anything like

12:45

this. Last music thing to ask you, yes,

12:47

we still are a board gaming podcast, we

12:49

have not swapped over yet. There was something

12:51

about a interview with Phil Collins. on something

12:54

only on drummio? Do you know anything about

12:56

this? I do. I am a subscriber to

12:58

drumio. Oh, it's free. I mean, it's just

13:00

a YouTube channel, but they typically do these

13:03

really kind of in-depth interviews with big drummers.

13:05

They're a huge channel. And I actually saw

13:07

the teaser that they're gonna be doing a

13:09

big. thing with him, which I'm super excited

13:12

to see. In the past, they've done the

13:14

drummer for Black Sabbath. I saw them do

13:16

a thing for the drummer for yes. So

13:18

they'll take a lot of these classic people

13:20

and do like interviews of other people. How

13:23

did they influence other drummers? And if they

13:25

can, get to talk to the, you know,

13:27

if they're still alive, they'll go talk to

13:29

them too. So yeah, they do a really

13:32

good job. And I'll be watching it when

13:34

it comes out. I don't think it's out

13:36

yet. No, it's late. Well, it will all

13:38

already be out when this show released. So

13:41

sometime around around Christmas. So

13:43

I didn't know if

13:45

it was know, know one,

13:47

go to you for

13:50

my subscription news, but

13:52

it's free on on So

13:54

I don't have to

13:56

subscribe to it So

13:59

I will definitely be

14:01

watching I will Collins Genesis

14:03

be of my favorite

14:05

all -time bands Genesis, one wait

14:08

Phil doesn't look too

14:10

good, but he looks

14:12

better than he did

14:14

a couple years ago

14:17

I will say that

14:19

he looks better than he did a doesn't,

14:21

you know. say that. Yeah, he know,

14:23

you know, age, you know. Father always wins, you know.

14:25

and when I I heard he wouldn't be

14:27

able to able to more, and I think

14:30

his last I think his he was having to

14:32

sit on the chair on stage in

14:34

order to even get through it and

14:36

stuff. stage in order to very, very iconic and stuff.

14:38

So fun thing very iconic man. The thing

14:40

which is really fun, too, is

14:42

they'll bring in big time drummers. big

14:44

time drummers and Uh, part of

14:46

the thing they'll do is they'll play

14:48

them a song a song the goal is

14:51

to find them a song They don't

14:53

know and they've removed the drum parts

14:55

and then they have to add their

14:57

own back their own back in So it's really interesting

14:59

to sit there and watch that process

15:01

And then how close or how far

15:03

away do they get from the like original

15:05

song? Okay, that was interesting and I forget

15:08

the drummer for the chili peppers is

15:10

going to be on there That's why

15:12

i'm like, okay. He's he's That's why still

15:14

he reminds He's he's topped here, and I'm still here. He reminds

15:16

me of Will Farrell. He looks exactly at Will. It's

15:18

it's a chat red hot chili. It's it's leaving

15:20

me. Well, that thing that

15:22

Will that and he did, he

15:25

did the Hot hot I think

15:27

it was think it was Smith. Chad

15:29

Smith. Smith. He's been on Drumeo

15:31

before. He's done a lot

15:33

with Drumeo. He's like a

15:35

regular on Drumeo, Drumio. Oh man, don't

15:37

Red Hot. I'm sorry, they're

15:39

still hot. I'm sorry. They're just saying.

15:42

a But anyway, all right. But

15:44

anyway, all right. right, so. All right. All

15:46

gonna switch it to So now I'm going

15:48

How about that? into Let's get

15:50

close board game Okay, circling the drain,

15:52

baby. are circling the drain. Here we

15:54

go. All right, so we're big fans

15:57

of baby. We are circling sleeves

15:59

Here here. their albums and stuff like

16:01

that. So sometimes every once in a while

16:03

they'll just send this like a new product

16:05

they come up with. And this is not

16:08

a sponsored review or anything like that. But

16:10

I just happened dropping the mail. The their

16:12

token silo XL converter. Oh, is this a

16:14

thing we saw Jinkon last year? Oh, this

16:16

is almost like a taste buds. If you

16:18

can see it. I can. It's a huge

16:21

organizer. It's like 12 inches by 8 inches.

16:23

They have a smaller silo that I've gotten

16:25

in the past and I've showed you it's

16:27

in my game bag But this one is

16:29

like huge it has Compartments for two regular

16:32

size decks of cards the two small American

16:34

style decks of cards and then just a

16:36

bunch of little small components are trays for

16:38

different tokens There's a total of 5, 15,

16:40

16 different token trays in here. There's one

16:43

long one here for you having thing long

16:45

and they're all reconfigurable so you can read,

16:47

you can, it's almost like a little puzzle

16:49

thing, you can reassemble this however you want

16:51

with a different, small trays in here. But

16:54

it's one of those things that if there's

16:56

a game that you had that you play

16:58

it a lot and you wanted to get

17:00

all your components of one, one container, you

17:02

throw it in the game box and you

17:05

do it in here. I know for me

17:07

is like an arghamhar player. I can easily

17:09

keep a couple decks in here and all

17:11

my tokens in here. So there's a lot

17:13

of uses for this. It's just a really

17:16

good organizer for tokens and sleeve cards and

17:18

little bits and bundles for either just to

17:20

bring out on your table to use as

17:22

trays for the current game you're playing. or

17:24

for permanent storage for some sort of game.

17:27

Yeah, organization, as you start putting it together,

17:29

it'd be nice if, and maybe they do,

17:31

I don't know anything, I'd have to look

17:33

into it, but it'd be nice if you'd

17:35

go to the Game Genic websites and say,

17:38

with this organizer, you can possibly use it

17:40

for these games. You know, we've got the

17:42

GMT games or the 18XX games where we've

17:44

bought those type of containers. But something like

17:46

that, when you showed that to me, I'm

17:49

looking at the small cards, the various cards,

17:51

that would work well to maintain that if

17:53

it fits in the box along with the

17:55

maps, but I don't see why I wouldn't.

17:57

You know, many of the GMT games, shoot

17:59

them, and a lot of the GMT games

18:02

might work that way with all the little

18:04

pieces. Now here you go Tony I mean

18:06

you could you could start making videos using

18:08

these showing how these could be using different

18:10

games and that could be your sponsored content

18:13

right there. Yeah let's just keep on dreaming

18:15

let's keep on let's keep on let's keep

18:17

on let's keep spitball in that a little

18:19

bit more let's see where that goes Don

18:21

it keeps saying where you gonna start a

18:24

YouTube channel oh oh okay well we're getting

18:26

there we're on the out of the edge

18:28

of the dream last thing on this one

18:30

just want to mention these things are only

18:32

$25 $25 which I don't think is too

18:35

bad for this too bad for this very

18:37

large organizer. And by the way, they're stackable.

18:39

So if you buy multiple of them, they

18:41

stack on top of each other, etc. There.

18:43

So that's the token silo Excel. Thank you,

18:46

Game Genic, for sending it out here. I'll

18:48

be using it a lot. Okay. So we're

18:50

going to spin out of the drain just

18:52

a little bit here. because of our discord

18:54

channel, which by the way for all board

18:57

gaming news where we don't discuss it in

18:59

our district work channel we discuss everything else,

19:01

but that's welcome to rolling dice and taking

19:03

names. So I put on this morning just

19:05

you know while I was waiting to get

19:08

ready to go do something. I put on

19:10

the new jolly southern biscuits, biscuits and gravy

19:12

with their dad. Oh my gosh and Donald

19:14

was watching it with me. And she's like,

19:16

who are these guys? This is hilarious. I

19:19

go, okay, here we go. And then I

19:21

said, okay, we'll put it in our rotation

19:23

with everything else. But I said, okay, if

19:25

you like it this one, let me show

19:27

you probably my favorite and this one. Let

19:30

me show you probably my favorite and that's

19:32

when let me show you probably my favorite

19:34

and that's when let me show you probably

19:36

my favorite and that's when they go.

19:38

She's like, like, oh my why

19:41

are people watching this?

19:43

Oh, that was funny.

19:45

I said, there you

19:47

go. I the time

19:49

they did the whole the

19:51

thing, they did a

19:54

Dollywood thing, they did a whole Southeast tour.

19:56

Yeah. They visited and all

19:58

this stuff. this stuff. So yeah,

20:00

they're really good. So

20:02

I did see the

20:05

one the they got one

20:07

of the of the to

20:09

try try. Southern style biscuits

20:11

and gravy, which was

20:13

funny, a a biscuit to

20:16

them is a cookie.

20:18

So they're immediately confused.

20:20

And you sit there and is

20:22

he is going to

20:24

like this? And the

20:27

dude absolutely loved it. loved

20:29

it. Yes, yes. And then the gravy. Like mean

20:31

they put they in our in our know You

20:33

know biscuits and gravy is nothing

20:35

but wet flour flour flour flour. That's true.

20:37

That's it. Oh, so one of the games we it enjoy

20:39

is so one of the games

20:41

we really really enjoy is And for those

20:43

from portal games and for those

20:45

that do not know this out there

20:47

on has a beta version is

20:50

it out there play it for free. And were

20:52

able to go out there and

20:54

play it for free to getting

20:56

it cranked up did not get around to getting

20:58

it cranked up here things a lot of things

21:00

going things with the Trans yada yada, yada people

21:02

visiting but you you got to play it. You said

21:04

it's it's for free. It's actually he released a pre, you

21:06

know, like they'll I thought play demos. There's a demo, know that's

21:08

let you play a demo and you can buy the full version. So

21:10

yes, I played it. I a demo and you can

21:12

buy the full version. of So I already knew how to

21:14

I do like how to go through the tutorial. It was

21:17

one of those things I didn't even know

21:19

how to play game I didn't really have to

21:21

go through the tutorial even though solo of

21:23

send you through a tutorial. I thought played everything

21:25

pretty well. or I've only played solo or I've only played

21:27

solo or I've only played solo or I've only see how many

21:29

points I can get points. by playing by

21:31

myself. be be interesting to see how it

21:33

would be played against others, so be curious

21:35

when you can get on and see

21:37

how it works playing against another opponent. I

21:40

think it looks good. I think

21:42

the UI is good. solid. UI is As

21:44

you lay your cards out on the

21:46

table, you can easily scroll around

21:48

the screen. I like that select a you

21:50

go to select a card options. has

21:52

multiple options, it comes up with

21:55

a pop one of these of these options you you

21:57

want to do when you get to

21:59

that particular card? card. The UI is really good

22:01

about showing the progress trees, you can,

22:03

or the progress tracks, it's just a

22:05

window that slides in, you can see

22:08

where you are on the current track,

22:10

etc. So it all plays very well,

22:12

it's very smooth. So if you like

22:15

Imperial Minors, or if you've never played

22:17

Imperial Minors, this is actually a good

22:19

way just to try out the game

22:21

before you get the physical version. So

22:24

they've done a really good job of

22:26

converting this over to steam, and I

22:28

recommend it. Okay, well I want to

22:30

get to play it. You know, one

22:33

of the things I always remember, I'd

22:35

get these demo codes for Steam, I

22:37

can never find where to put the

22:39

stupid demo code in. It's hilarious. You

22:42

think it'd be right in your library?

22:44

Like, how do I, where do I

22:46

put demo in? That's not it. So

22:48

as soon as I can figure it

22:51

out. Here, I'm going to help you

22:53

out. If you go to the top

22:55

of the screen where it says games

22:57

where it says games. Oh, look at

23:00

that! And then enter in the code

23:02

there. Oh, isn't that special? Well, I

23:04

thought it was the same way. I

23:07

thought it was a lot harder than

23:09

that in the past. I thought it

23:11

was buried behind something. Okay. Yep. All

23:13

right, well, very good. I got a

23:16

ton of games on steam. Yeah, I

23:18

got a ton of games never played

23:20

on, that's like everybody, right? We're preaching

23:22

to the quad, everybody's like shaking their

23:25

head going, yeah, I got a bunch

23:27

of games I've never even played. I

23:29

got a game here called Northcard, I

23:31

hear that's a pretty good game and

23:34

board game. So right now I'm steam,

23:36

I have a hundred and fifty seven

23:38

games. Holy cow, that's way more than

23:40

I got. If you go to library,

23:43

it shows at the top of menus

23:45

in there. Oh, I've got 51. Oh,

23:47

yeah, I got a few more. I'm

23:49

a lightweight. And most of them are

23:52

half-life, half-life, two, half-life, blue shift, left

23:54

for dead when we were doing all

23:56

of our first person shooter games. Oh,

23:59

yeah. You know, stuff like. Works

24:01

die. How many copies How

24:03

many copies of Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic

24:05

do I have? do I

24:07

have? I've got it here on

24:09

Steam, I've got it on

24:11

what's funny is funny is I

24:13

day one Age of mythology the

24:16

new version I paid

24:18

money for this for price and

24:20

I still haven't played haven't played it once.

24:22

And it's one of those things those

24:24

things, like this and then I

24:26

kind of forgot about it

24:29

So I still need to try

24:31

this out because I like

24:33

the original need mythology. this out, because I like

24:35

the got bio agent mythology. Okay. I've got Bioshock.

24:37

Man! This is is so sad. kind

24:40

of board game stuff of board game stuff

24:42

I we have? you I me borrow a

24:44

So you let me borrow over for the

24:46

to take over for the have a

24:48

bunch of I'll have a bunch of

24:50

people you I thought, you know,

24:52

this would be a great party

24:54

game. I game. I enjoy my It's fun. The

24:56

best best part about mind map those those

24:58

who haven't arguing with one another on

25:00

where they another on where they As a

25:03

quick reminder, As map, you have

25:05

an XY you have an XY axis and you're a

25:07

secret word word. On that x, y axis,

25:09

there are two types of categories. And

25:12

in the center the the,

25:14

where those two words meet meet

25:16

a relative word. And what

25:18

you're supposed to do is

25:20

compare your secret word to

25:22

how relative it is to

25:24

the categories is to the word

25:26

in the center. So for

25:28

instance, the if So for have if

25:30

you have, let's just pick, oh shoot,

25:32

my gosh, I I had the

25:34

perfect one. It was was a, the thing,

25:37

Q-tip. Let's say you have Q

25:39

-tip on the X -axis the X-axis and

25:41

TNT on the Y -axis. and

25:44

you put a baby's butt in

25:46

the middle. and your your

25:48

word was know I'm don't know. I'm

25:50

just making stuff up here.

25:52

You you stuff up and you

25:54

would say say Christmas lights and

25:56

you you would say relative

25:58

is is that Christmas lights to a

26:01

Q-Tib versus TNT versus a baby's butt.

26:03

And you would place your little token

26:05

there in the X-Y-axis. And you're trying

26:08

to get people to guess your word.

26:10

Well, I put this on the table

26:12

and it was just with Donna, the

26:14

people when we went trans Siberian orchestra.

26:17

And let's just say the subtleties of

26:19

the game were lost. It did not

26:21

go over well at all. Oh, really.

26:23

Oh, it was not, it was, it

26:26

was, what was the words that were

26:28

used was, I don't get it. This

26:30

is nothing but guessing. I'm like, but

26:32

y'all played fine. Well, well, we need

26:35

a better, we need to be able

26:37

to change our answers. I'm like, that's

26:39

not the game. You know, it was.

26:41

And so, and by the way, for

26:44

people who are here, and what you

26:46

do is you put out secretly where

26:48

your secret words gonna go. Everybody else

26:50

tries to guess who's their secret word.

26:53

Right. And it was bad. It was

26:55

hilarious. That's what was fun. Everybody knows

26:57

all the words. Nobody knows which one

26:59

who has which one. That's the thing.

27:02

Yeah. And you argue, how can you

27:04

put that word in that location on

27:06

the board? That's where the engagement is.

27:08

That's where the fun is. And eventually

27:11

people get, you know, get to understand

27:13

that. But it did not go over

27:15

well. So next game, you'll be getting

27:17

mine map back. I don't need to

27:20

take it. It was like, oh man,

27:22

I really thought they would enjoy that.

27:24

So once again, why am I telling

27:26

this story? It's because not everything is

27:29

for everybody, you know. I really enjoyed

27:31

it. They're like, why do you enjoy

27:33

this? I like, I enjoy the fact

27:35

of trying to, you know, figure out

27:38

where my word is so that y'all

27:40

would understand, you would guess right. Clearly

27:42

you're not thinking like I do, but

27:44

that's that's half the thing. Clearly you're

27:47

thinking incorrectly. That's right. So yes, my

27:49

map, Marty and I really liked it.

27:51

Go back and listen to our review

27:53

on it. But let's just say.

27:56

It's not for everybody,

27:58

but it does

28:00

make for some good

28:02

stories for some good stories

28:05

when it's not. All those

28:07

holiday holiday festivities are

28:09

over with with big parties,

28:12

the amazing dinners. After

28:14

everybody is done feasting

28:16

on that you're ready ready

28:18

to play a game.

28:20

The The problem is, you have

28:23

to clear off that table. If

28:25

you had a had a game topper, it it.

28:27

put the game right there, right?

28:29

right had to leave their seat. had to leave

28:31

their seat. Bam! just happened. Or

28:33

if Or at my house where

28:35

your wife goes go get

28:37

the wife goes go get the table the

28:39

umpteenth hundred hundred time, but babe, the game

28:41

topper the Game Topper Mat protects

28:44

the table. Trust me, the

28:46

tablecloth on top of it, no one

28:48

will see that incredible image image that is

28:50

on the Game Topper mat. And then then

28:52

all we really gotta do is

28:54

just roll it on up. I tell

28:56

you what, babe, babe... maybe next year

28:58

we'll get get the... let's put out

29:00

the Christmas themed one. She goes, that's

29:02

not a Christmas that's not Christmas themed. Matt? That's

29:04

just a a mat. Close enough.

29:07

enough, the the table. has thought of you.

29:09

has thought of you. He's making

29:11

your life easier over Toppers. Make sure

29:13

Make sure your table's protected. Shoot.

29:15

If you If you want to,

29:17

go over there and get a

29:19

mat for someone who someone who maybe...

29:21

or oh man, you see what

29:23

happened here? here? You a game

29:25

map when you're over at their

29:27

house. Head over to you were over .com. house.

29:30

Head over to

29:32

Game Topers LLC.com.

29:35

Five minute initiative

29:38

-minute initiative

29:40

begins one. Res Arcana

29:42

duo by Thomas

29:44

Lehman is a

29:46

two-player is a of

29:48

version of the game from

29:50

2019 with a similar name, similar

29:52

where you are sitting there trying

29:55

to get to to 10 victory

29:57

points before the other player by doing

29:59

doing a management. type of game where

30:01

I am going to collect these various

30:03

resources. I'm going to convert them to

30:05

another type of resource or potentially be

30:07

able to convert them so that I

30:09

can get victory points from that by

30:12

placing them on a card. It is

30:14

a very solid implementation of Razarkana. I

30:16

didn't realize Razarkana had been out so

30:18

long ago, Mari, 2019. Wow. I hadn't

30:20

either and I know that when we

30:23

first played it we loved that game

30:25

because we like engine builders and that's

30:27

what this is. You know on your

30:29

turn you can either play an artifact

30:31

a card from your hand you can

30:33

claim a monument or a place of

30:36

power which additional cards on the board

30:38

that's going to give you victory points

30:40

can discard a card for one gold

30:42

or two other essences. These are the

30:44

resources that you'll use. to pay for

30:47

other cards and to get them into

30:49

play. You can use a power on

30:51

your card, which is important. As you

30:53

get artifacts into play or cards into

30:55

play, they're gonna have actions on them,

30:57

such as exhaust, to maybe, hey, exhaust,

31:00

you get this essence, or exhaust and

31:02

reset something else. So you're building a

31:04

little card engine there. And last thing

31:06

you can do is pass, which allows

31:08

you to exchange on a magic item

31:11

that you got at the beginning of

31:13

the round for another one that's out

31:15

there. Duo plays exactly. like the regular

31:17

Res Arcana, except there's no cards in

31:19

here that allow you to steal essences

31:21

from other players, which was a big

31:24

thing in the base game of being

31:26

able to steal or make other people

31:28

lose essences. That part of playing reaction

31:30

doesn't exist in the two-player game. And

31:32

there's a good reason why. Because you

31:35

imagine that, then it just becomes a

31:37

tick for tack game of going back

31:39

and forth. The game would go on

31:41

forever. It's tick-tack-tow all over. Loved it.

31:43

Absolutely loved it. I'm not a big

31:45

fan. I've kind of waned off the

31:48

resource conversion where I'll tap this card,

31:50

spend these resources to get X amount

31:52

of gold. I need gold to be

31:54

able to buy these cards. You know,

31:56

but this one, it played very smooth,

31:59

played very quick. it times, times,

32:01

strategies. We had different different majors that we we

32:03

would able to able to use. I You

32:05

and I tried it out at

32:07

the very beginning on the card draft.

32:09

I'd pick a pick a set one aside for

32:11

you until we both had those

32:13

cards and then shuffle them up. So

32:16

there's 10 cards, I believe 10 your

32:18

I believe total in deck. Yeah. Each of us

32:20

Each of us are cards. We We draw off

32:22

the top, keep one, pass one and

32:24

do that through the entire stack. And

32:26

And that is very strategic based

32:28

on the maid have or based on on the

32:30

monuments that were out there at the time. A

32:32

lot A lot of strategy for setup for for the

32:34

game ready to go. to go. What I like I

32:36

like about it is there's only cards. cards.

32:38

You can easily learn all the 16

32:40

cards. eight you gonna know the eight you don't

32:42

have, to and then know gonna know what's,

32:44

I know if I combo this one with

32:46

this one, this one with this one,

32:48

and then you just cross your fingers that maybe...

32:50

One of of the ones that come back

32:52

to you from the other player player you

32:54

in some way. some So So I that you do

32:57

do get to learn the So So the question

32:59

is Tony, because always into, if you play

33:01

this so many times just becomes the same

33:03

game. game Do you Do you think this will

33:05

become the same game there's only there's and only

33:07

16 cards? 16 It might. It might I think I

33:09

can see where that would happen. I'm kind

33:11

of curious if the other mages from the other

33:13

could even be used here. I don't know.

33:15

could It'd be interesting to see if that

33:17

could add something. be I know that there are

33:19

certain to see if I know it goes the other

33:21

way. You know put that in there because

33:23

of the various essences I know in the original

33:25

Rez Arcana. They have those on these cards,

33:27

but it'd be interesting to see if you

33:29

could convert it back going the other way.

33:31

But I do think there would be some

33:33

challenge there. You can't put go and read why is

33:35

the two -player game But so similar. would be.

33:37

posted, we want want to reintroduce this game

33:39

to new players. So we created a

33:41

two -player version of the game, so only

33:44

$25 so it's very inexpensive that you

33:46

could play an experience. the But the thing

33:48

is game the cards in this game

33:50

can be merged as kind of like

33:52

an expansion into the full game. we So

33:54

the idea is to say release to

33:56

just release an expansion requiring somebody to

33:58

go buy the the game. This is a

34:00

standalone game. Oh, and by the way,

34:02

if you happen to have... the base

34:05

you can merge this in or if

34:07

you want to get more game out

34:09

of this then you can go by

34:11

the full version which I appreciate it

34:13

and for only $25 you get a

34:15

nice plastic insert you get a nice

34:17

plastic tray with a cover to hold

34:19

all the essence pieces in there so

34:21

it for just 25 bucks I think

34:23

it's a really high quality product now

34:25

now I will say this that when

34:27

you and I were playing we were

34:29

on equal ground as far as knowledge

34:31

of cards knowledge of how things were

34:33

going to work if I were to

34:35

take advantage because sure you know I

34:38

do think that is of something to

34:40

consider however I think after a couple

34:42

one play with them played again play

34:44

again put it away for a couple

34:46

of months bring it back out yeah

34:48

I think it's definitely one to you

34:50

know put on your show if you

34:52

enjoyed Res Arcana and you want a

34:54

skinny down version definitely look at this

34:56

I agree so that is Res Arcana

34:58

from Tom Lehman and Sandcastle games five-minute

35:00

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35:35

At GenCon, when we got to sit

35:37

at the table with the fine folks

35:39

from Board and Dice, they showed off

35:41

a new game that was going to

35:43

be coming out at the end of

35:45

2024, called Meadows, Dawn of the Bronze

35:47

Age. Now Tony, you and I are

35:50

typically fans of Euro games that use

35:52

dice. It's like over the years, we've

35:54

played a lot of really good ones.

35:56

I think one of the first ones

35:58

ever that we really enjoyed was Lorenzo!

36:00

Just like in that, in many other games, in

36:02

that and many other games There's

36:04

are going to be used

36:06

there's colors there's values they mean

36:08

different things so he said said,

36:11

yes, would like to try this

36:13

try they sent this to us

36:15

this is from to us, this is from

36:17

designer Stan two four players and

36:19

they're saying on here the playing

36:21

time is saying on here, minutes time is

36:24

90 to 150 minutes, which it's a lie. I'm a

36:26

I'm throwing a flag on

36:28

that one right one right now. I'm sure you

36:30

could get there get there players

36:32

with four players. With players Okay, maybe we're

36:34

jumping jumping to conclusions real

36:36

quick. I'm just saying just saying

36:38

that's that's two hours and

36:41

and a half hours. half hours. Mm-hmm.

36:43

Two and a half going too much

36:45

into the game right now into game

36:47

right now, every round, are doing doing a

36:49

total of 12 actions across

36:51

four players. four players. No. Four times, 16,

36:54

16. 16. 16, yeah. 16 actions. actions

36:56

and these actions it as

36:58

a tree, it as a

37:00

tree have which have

37:02

-bullets which have with

37:05

parenthetical expressions I footnotes. you mean,

37:07

going deep into this deep into this

37:09

thing. So I'm with you.

37:11

people people are just bam, bam,

37:13

bam, bam, bam, I I don't

37:15

see how. I don't see

37:18

how. how. I don't see I

37:20

don't see how we'll get in into

37:22

the reasons why. I will say, just quickly

37:24

on on times games I wish they

37:26

would would overestimate of under I think

37:28

it's a a more Bore negative impression

37:30

of a game if I pick

37:32

it up and I see the

37:34

time to play to it's not even

37:36

close even close, rather you tell me

37:38

me. It's three hours we we in in two

37:40

and a half. when they throw out they throw out

37:43

some of their they were, if I were to, if

37:45

I were to put three hours on there

37:47

and out, I ain't gonna get get that to the

37:49

table. Oh, look, look, two hours, I can get

37:51

two hours to the table. So a fine

37:53

line, dude. And maybe you aren't a good

37:55

player to be able to hit my time.

37:57

Maybe I'm a much better player than you. than

37:59

you. again, subjective. subjective. Yes, it is subjective. All

38:02

right, so how this works is the first

38:04

player at the start of the game is

38:06

going to roll a handful of dice and

38:08

then we're going to take turns drafting a

38:11

die and placing it on one of five

38:13

actions that you're going to be able to

38:15

take once all the dice have been drafted

38:17

or all the players have drafted and placed

38:19

their dice. When you take a die, you're

38:22

going to put it to the left most

38:24

available slot in the action slot. Thing is

38:26

though, as other people take die and want

38:28

to the same action space. If the dye

38:30

that is there is higher than the one

38:33

they drafted, they're going to shift the higher

38:35

dye to the right and take that position.

38:37

So by the end, after all dice are

38:39

placed, they're ascending in order from left to

38:42

right. And if dice are equal, then you

38:44

go behind the dice that you're equal to,

38:46

and then when it's your turn, after all

38:48

the dice have been drafted and assigned, we're

38:50

going to go back to this in a

38:53

minute because it's very important to talk about

38:55

these action spaces. But you're going to take

38:57

your highest. Dice and if two are equal

38:59

and you're going to perform the actions now

39:02

there is a step about if two or

39:04

equal you get to pick Yeah if I

39:06

have two sixes out there then I get

39:08

to pick which one I want to take

39:10

and then you process all your four dice

39:13

for the round rinse and repeat now there's

39:15

a little some other steps in there like

39:17

I said there's you know sub bullets to

39:19

all of this but that's really how the

39:21

game works roll dice draft ice Take the

39:24

actions, but now let's go to some details.

39:26

So let's talk about this action selection. You

39:28

know how you put your little dice out

39:30

there? Then this will lead to the AP.

39:33

I put my dice out there. All right,

39:35

I got it out there. And I put

39:37

it, I had to put it in the

39:39

left most spot. That means I'm going to

39:41

get so many action points for this action.

39:44

A simple one to do is where I'm

39:46

able to place people on the board, meeples

39:48

on the board, and move those meeples. Now,

39:50

Actions the next one changes that I don't

39:53

get to take as many and the third

39:55

one. There's a something else different here. So

39:57

to take less, but maybe I get a

39:59

benefit depending on which side of the board

40:01

you're playing on. So all of a sudden,

40:04

what you thought you were going to be

40:06

able to do has now been shifted, which

40:08

causes a lot of screwing with your action

40:10

plan, with your game plan. And that I

40:12

think is what slowed us down a little

40:15

bit. 100% and that's why I think this

40:17

is really, even when you have played this

40:19

game a lot, you're still going to be

40:21

dealing with, oh, cool. I went to this,

40:24

it's called the expand action. I hope I

40:26

can get six expand points because I know

40:28

exactly how I'm going to use them, right?

40:30

And let's say I put a three there,

40:32

but oh dog gone it, somebody drafted a

40:35

two and put it there, somebody drafted a

40:37

one and put it there, now I'm shifted

40:39

down to only getting four action points to

40:41

spend on that. But I already planned out

40:44

my six. So now I decide, well, instead

40:46

of six, I've only got four now. That's

40:48

where the AP comes in because now you're

40:50

trying to process which two action points am

40:52

I going to drop instead. Yeah. Now, like

40:55

you said, there might be a bonus. You

40:57

might be able to move up on a

40:59

progress track, which is nice. And sometimes, Tony,

41:01

I actually placed dice in hopes of my

41:04

dice remaining there to move up on a

41:06

progress track because this is one of those

41:08

games, y'all, where things can trigger other potential

41:10

actions for you to do. And it's like,

41:12

oh, if I can move up on this

41:15

progress track, that's going to give me a

41:17

free build action, which means I can do

41:19

during my main action to supplement this other

41:21

direction that I've done, and you can just

41:23

see how it just kind of builds on

41:26

top of each other. But if that doesn't

41:28

happen, then my plans have been changed, and

41:30

I've got to rethink everything. And it can

41:32

happen. I mean, maybe you want to, and

41:35

talk about the progress tracks, but... We're sitting

41:37

there thinking, oh, well, I know. Well, I

41:39

think I know. Marty is going to move

41:41

us up or go to that same location.

41:43

So let me go ahead and take the

41:46

six knowing for two reasons. And we'll talk

41:48

about why higher dice are. important

41:50

in this game game because

41:52

why wouldn't you just

41:55

take there low number you

41:57

there's an impact number because

41:59

that on the progress

42:01

tracks that on the like okay

42:03

I'm gonna take I'm

42:06

knowing that take to go

42:08

here and based on

42:10

the dice that are

42:12

out there based on the

42:14

have to push me to the left

42:16

gonna there's a lot of there's a then

42:19

he will go in behind he will

42:21

maybe he wants to slide in behind

42:23

because he's equal. in What's so important

42:25

about the numbers, the pips on

42:27

the dice? the Well, the if the dice

42:29

you draft are greater than The sum

42:31

of the dice you sum of the

42:34

a one for a one particular

42:36

four you. four different colors. three

42:38

that there's three that of the

42:40

color of each of the progress and then

42:43

a then a gray one which can

42:45

be assigned to any one of

42:47

those. of those. So if any if you have three dice,

42:49

four dice that is nine or or more. you may

42:51

then you may afford that particular

42:53

progress track. track. the red track. may I

42:55

may then advance up the red

42:58

track. I maybe want to do that like to do

43:00

that like Marty said, because he

43:02

wants something to occur when he advances

43:04

up on that that track. track. Now let's

43:06

just say there's also the yellow track,

43:08

the red, the yellow, and the

43:10

blue the tracks. Let's say I'm able

43:12

to put I'm progress track track reds than nine

43:14

two yellow progress get then I get

43:16

to move up on both those

43:18

tracks. So So maybe I want to

43:20

take a and a a three and a

43:22

six and a three, three. right? All right.

43:25

But what's my my risk here? I will get

43:27

then I will get on down

43:29

on those actions that I want

43:31

to plan out. down, maybe then you

43:33

don't butt me down, maybe other

43:35

special thing can't. want to happen. Like other

43:37

special thing that I want to happen.

43:39

is populated bonus, which is populated on the

43:41

map at the beginning of the board.

43:44

you For us, resource it was you get

43:46

a free resource There's like that. There's ones

43:48

ones that can come out at the

43:50

board board where there's this. on the action tracks,

43:52

there's this, this you get to go do

43:54

this special thing. You get to do

43:56

the special action action if your happens to

43:58

be in that track. track so all this is going

44:00

on because maybe I want that special

44:02

thing to have. Oh, see, I know

44:05

I'm confusing y'all, but this is where

44:07

the game is in all the subcategories.

44:09

It just takes forever to get through

44:11

this and it can mess you up.

44:13

The actions that you actually are taking

44:15

are really not that difficult. There's one

44:17

we've already talked about. It's putting people

44:19

out on the board and moving them

44:21

around on the board, which is actually

44:23

going to be one of the main

44:25

ways that you score in the second

44:27

and fourth round. in a zone or

44:29

at least being there is going to

44:32

generate victory points and you'll get more

44:34

victory points if you're up higher on

44:36

the blue progress track so that's why

44:38

you want to move up that track.

44:40

Another one is there's there's these cards

44:42

called decree cards and one of the

44:44

actions is basically being able to draw

44:46

decree cards into your hand, having a

44:48

handful of those is really good, because

44:50

another action is develop, which allows you

44:52

to play a decree card, and there's

44:54

gonna be a cost associated with it,

44:56

a certain amount of gold, and it

44:58

gives you an immediate benefit, but at

45:01

the very end of the round, at

45:03

the bottom of the round, at the

45:05

bottom of the round, at the bottom

45:07

of your board. which will give you

45:09

potentially benefits during the game like it

45:11

says hey if you take this particular

45:13

action you get this bonus resource if

45:15

you draft a die of value three

45:17

or four this triggers so as the

45:19

game goes on these additional triggers happen

45:21

which also can make your turn longer

45:23

but the thing is is when you

45:25

bury one of those cards under your

45:28

board, it's based on where your progress

45:30

is on the red progress track. The

45:32

higher it is there, the more cards

45:34

you can put underneath there. So you

45:36

can see how one action over here

45:38

really affects another action over here on

45:40

the other side. And the final action

45:42

is the build action, where you can

45:44

then take cities, ships, off your board,

45:46

and place them where you have a

45:48

warrior, a meeple, sitting on the board.

45:50

and you can then build or expand

45:52

your city. Now there is no fighting

45:55

in this game. You're not going to

45:57

try to go out and battle with

45:59

one another. You're simply just going to

46:01

go out there. The meples on the

46:03

board determine dominance and presence, which is

46:05

for the scoring example. But now you're

46:07

unlocking the capability of putting cities on

46:09

the board, which you can then put

46:11

warriors in and then expand out from

46:13

there. or maybe your warriors are going

46:15

to give you a benefit from a,

46:17

by fighting the sea people that are

46:19

on the board. Those are like NPCs

46:22

placed at the beginning of the game.

46:24

That's the only combat you have are

46:26

these little NPCs on the board. Just

46:28

give you victory points. Right. And you

46:30

battle those by having the number of

46:32

acts tokens that you can collect over

46:34

the period of the game. When you

46:36

uncover these various things will happen. By

46:38

uncovering that, that's another part of the

46:40

game. So that is the build action

46:42

that you can take from drafting your

46:44

dice. Now we did say five actions.

46:46

Those are the four main ones, the

46:49

fifth one was just wild. It just

46:51

allows you to pick any of those

46:53

other actions, but you don't get as

46:55

many action points to spend when you

46:57

go to the wild area. But the

46:59

nice thing about the wild area, if

47:01

somebody messes up your plans, at least

47:03

you kind of have that in your

47:05

back pocket to potentially use and maybe

47:07

fix something where somebody else messed you

47:09

up. which I found to be probably

47:11

the most valuable one to take. The

47:13

Wild. Yeah. To counteract what you just

47:15

did to me. And now I can't

47:18

split those. I have to do those

47:20

action points in that area that I

47:22

can't, you know, I'm going to go

47:24

do a build and then draft a

47:26

card here. I can't do that. But

47:28

I found that the Wild was very

47:30

important as we were playing this game

47:32

because it gave me that. Okay, oh

47:34

man, I needed those additional action points.

47:36

Then I'll go ahead and use the

47:38

wild in a later to be able

47:40

to supplement what I had originally planned

47:42

into. You bumped my freaking dice down

47:45

the track a little bit and I

47:47

didn't anticipate you going there. So again,

47:49

this was played over four rounds, four

47:51

dice are drafted and placed in each.

47:53

round for total of of

47:55

actions. And I'm going

47:57

to emphasize this again.

47:59

It's just hard

48:01

to plan. plan. It's like I

48:03

like, I really

48:05

need this so that I can

48:07

bump up on so that I can bump up

48:09

on this knowing that die is going knowing bumped on get bumped

48:12

on this action track. So I'm not gonna get

48:14

the actions that I really want. So when

48:16

it does come to your turn. turn. You're

48:18

literally just trying to sit there and look

48:20

at, and look at, gonna take these going to take these points

48:22

for this particular action, and if I do

48:24

this and do this, I do trigger this. this.

48:26

I had to play that that card because

48:28

I'm taking this action, I get this I bit

48:30

of a resource. bit of Now I can use

48:32

this resource to help pay for the cost

48:34

of this, cost of these cards, when they come

48:37

in play, in play. you can decrease the cost

48:39

of these by some permanent resources that you've

48:41

collected over the course of the game, or

48:43

you have temporary resources that you can spend.

48:45

So that's how you can help cut down

48:47

on the cost. that's how you be it's like

48:49

cut down on I do this can go

48:51

grab this okay, resource can go grab means then

48:53

I'll have the funds to play this

48:55

card because I'm going to get a

48:57

discount. because So y 'all on your turn

48:59

this is all going on in your

49:01

head. all going that could take a few minutes,

49:03

right? a few minutes, right. the rest of

49:05

you guys, I I guess everybody else can

49:07

kinda see, well I know the know the next dice I'm

49:10

I'm gonna draft is this one, so

49:12

I guess you can think about what you

49:14

wanna do on your turn, on your turn because

49:16

really wasn't a lot of player interaction per

49:18

se I mean there was some there was some, a

49:20

little bit of me, you know, under

49:22

my breath you you for bumping my

49:24

die a dye drafting a die that I I

49:26

because I needed that color to go

49:28

up on the progress track. That's the

49:30

interaction. oh and and by the way, we

49:32

didn't mention yet yet on your turn, there

49:34

are free actions you can take as

49:36

well. one of the key ones is, I've

49:38

I've drafted all these cards. I can I

49:41

can discard them to get money because money

49:43

is not a free -flowing thing in this

49:45

game. And money and money pays for your cards,

49:47

all your cards, all that stuff, but

49:49

you do get these discounts. maybe you

49:51

Or maybe you want to discard that you've

49:54

that you've collected over the course of the round

49:56

to be able to collect a temporary resource. Oh, and and

49:58

by the way, if you could... three temporary

50:00

resources, then it becomes a permanent resource

50:02

that never goes away. So maybe I

50:04

need to spend a couple of axes,

50:07

you know, on each die I do

50:09

during that round so that I can

50:11

eventually have a permanent because that permanent

50:13

can then decrease the cost of this

50:15

card I want to play, which I

50:18

know I'm later going to put at

50:20

the bottom board because I know those

50:22

actions are more important later in the

50:24

game. There you go. There are six

50:26

extractions, but you can only do each

50:28

just once, but the problem is, and

50:31

it's so funny. And it's so funny.

50:33

These are, you know how sometimes there

50:35

are extra actions where it's like, oh,

50:37

I'll just use them occasionally. Here in

50:39

the rules, bold, important, these actions are

50:41

an important part of the game. Using

50:44

them from the very beginning of the

50:46

game is highly recommended and I 100%

50:48

agree because a lot of your turn

50:50

will be taking these extra actions. So

50:52

now y'all, it's not just the action

50:54

of the die that you're going to

50:57

do, you've got these extra actions that

50:59

you're probably going to resolve also. And

51:01

I know we keep emphasizing the time

51:03

to play. I guess we should talk

51:05

about the fun. I think it's a

51:08

well done game. It's a well done

51:10

euro. I do like the dice mechanic.

51:12

I like the drafting. The actions are

51:14

really straightforward. There's really nothing unique there.

51:16

Draw cards, play cards, get people out

51:18

on the board, move those people around.

51:21

or build buildings and put them out

51:23

on the board. I agree. I like

51:25

the dice draft. That was well done.

51:27

I like how that interaction came in

51:29

and the need to be able to

51:31

sum up that total to go up

51:34

the progress track. You can't do it

51:36

all. And when you've heard to say

51:38

this about multiple games, you need to

51:40

pick and choose your battles here on

51:42

what you're really going to concentrate on

51:44

and how some people can mess you

51:47

up. I enjoyed that. I like the

51:49

easy. It's actually very easy to. teach

51:51

what your main actions are. You know,

51:53

that was a quick teach for us.

51:55

It was an easy thing to do

51:58

to watch a video or have Marty

52:00

teach it to us. It wasn't a

52:02

long teach. So that's a bonus for

52:04

it. but it is definitely a thinker.

52:06

There's no doubt about that. I like

52:08

the fact that it wasn't a bunch

52:11

of converting. I was very concerned that

52:13

it was going to be to gather

52:15

these resources to convert these resources to

52:17

get other resources. It wasn't that. The

52:19

resources served their purpose of discounting calls

52:21

to make a more efficient game and

52:24

you needed to play that out. I'll

52:26

be honest. This game, it had all

52:28

the right mechanics. For me, it was

52:30

just like, holy cow, this is long.

52:32

This is very long and it is

52:34

a great thinker. I'm not trying to

52:37

take away from this game. It was

52:39

just very long. Yeah, and in fact,

52:41

we ended up doing a variant. We

52:43

only drafted three dice in the last

52:45

two rounds just to cut down on

52:48

the time. That was something I saw

52:50

in BGGG where people recommend it, okay,

52:52

if you want to run a shorter

52:54

game, last two rounds, just do three

52:56

die each round instead. I also noticed

52:58

that there's really only two ways to

53:01

score your main victory points. That's in

53:03

scoring the dominance and presence in regions.

53:05

You go around and resolve each region,

53:07

count up the number of warriors into

53:09

each one. If somebody has more than

53:11

everybody else, they're going to get a

53:14

dominance victory point award. or presence. And

53:16

it's one of those things that you

53:18

can have presence everywhere. You probably want

53:20

presence everywhere because you need those points.

53:22

The other main thing is playing cards,

53:24

your decree cards, which will give you

53:27

victory points at the end of the

53:29

game, any cards that you've buried underneath

53:31

your board. They have a victory point

53:33

value on them. So Tony, one of

53:35

the games we played, we had three

53:38

different ways. I went very heavy into

53:40

the dominance and presence to get victory

53:42

points. Mark. heavy decree cards, you did

53:44

a smattering of both, I felt like

53:46

you probably did a little bit focus

53:48

probably more on the presence than in

53:51

the cards and ending up doing a

53:53

huge slingshot at the end and winning.

53:55

So I don't think that you can

53:57

do just one or the other, but

53:59

I felt that the that the map

54:01

on the map were the more

54:03

valuable than decree cards Right. So, well, so here's the

54:05

thing. The the thing, the decree cards

54:07

gave me the points at the end

54:09

but the only reason why I started why

54:11

to deal with the meeples was

54:13

because of the amount of victory points

54:15

you were collecting amount of immediately shifted

54:17

at the end of the game. shifted

54:20

at said, I need to

54:22

get my people get my map. the map.

54:24

Not so much for just I knew I

54:26

wasn't going to catch you in to but

54:28

to try to combat to the amount of

54:30

victory points that you were getting. I

54:32

needed to make sure that I slowed you

54:34

down, to make down I if I didn't, I

54:36

felt you would just steam roll right

54:38

over. I felt you would think in

54:40

a longer game over. But I players or

54:42

three players, four players or three players, that comes into

54:44

play a lot more at the

54:46

end of the game at the end of the

54:48

around jocking people on the map of trying

54:51

to get the dominance and presence. presence.

54:53

I think that's one of the

54:55

things with the three people we might

54:57

have missed missed with the less dice, but once

54:59

But again, if we had had

55:01

all four with with four people, we

55:03

would have been there a good four

55:05

hours and I don't think it's

55:07

nothing fault of of the game. Yeah, no fault to

55:09

the game. It game. It would have just been

55:11

the strategy that we would have have had

55:13

done. and the fact that, you know, a

55:15

lot of people would have been going to

55:17

moving those people and maybe taking cards,

55:19

decree cards create allows you to get to

55:22

do that as an additional action when

55:24

you pulled a pull to five if you did

55:26

this particular action. You need to you need to

55:28

those actions on those cards to help

55:30

you supplement the actions that are on

55:32

the main board. You mentioned early there is

55:34

no combat. It's not like I can

55:36

come out there and I out one of

55:38

your guys. knock out one of your There is

55:40

no downside to having a meeple

55:42

everywhere, even if you don't have dominance

55:45

I I would almost rather have

55:47

a meeple in every space and

55:49

not have any dominance, I'm guaranteed. because

55:51

I'm three points, three points, you

55:53

know, everywhere instead of five, you

55:55

know, or something like that. know or something

55:57

know, I'd rather have six have two

55:59

zones than five in one. And the math

56:01

actually worked out it was better to

56:03

have presence in two than dominance in

56:05

one. Right. Another thing I want to

56:08

point about the game, this is typical

56:10

board and dice stuff. Their iconography, top

56:12

notch. Just look over the board real

56:14

quick. I'm able to interpret their iconography.

56:16

and what they're doing. There were a

56:18

few that I had to look up,

56:20

but mostly I could quickly say, okay,

56:22

they've combined the various ones on the

56:24

board to represent complex type of actions

56:26

on my decree cards at the bottom.

56:29

I felt that was pretty straightforward. So

56:31

once again, easy to teach, say, hey,

56:33

great reference material. I even read the

56:35

rule book. The rule book was straightforward,

56:37

easy to follow. So I mean, there's

56:39

a ton of positives to this as...

56:41

and I think it's not really a

56:43

negative it's just do you have the

56:45

time to get this on the table

56:47

and play a really thorough game that's

56:50

up to you I mean I enjoyed

56:52

it I enjoy the dice well I

56:54

enjoy the dice revenue there are a

56:56

lot of things I enjoyed on this

56:58

game a hundred percent I don't know

57:00

for our group that I'd want to

57:02

play four player four actions per it's

57:04

just it's too long I think three

57:06

players the max it'd be curious to

57:08

see how two player works So after

57:11

we played I went and watched some

57:13

other reviews and they all kind of

57:15

came to the same conclusion Solid euro

57:17

Long game with the four-player count right

57:19

right so if you got four hours

57:21

in the evening. Hey, this is I

57:23

think this is one of their top

57:25

games. I really enjoy all the ones

57:27

we played I really think that this

57:29

is a really good game Board and

57:32

Dice has a reputation, especially with their

57:34

T games, being overly complex. This definitely

57:36

is not that. But to me, I

57:38

felt I had to make as many

57:40

meaningful decisions in this game as any

57:42

T game. Absolutely. This is, yeah, it's

57:44

a thinker. You got to think it

57:46

out, you got to plan it out,

57:48

and I agree with you. That, it

57:50

was very well designed. This is Meadows

57:53

Dawn of the Bronze. age from Board

57:55

and Dice, if you get a chance

57:57

to play it, let us know what

57:59

you think, let us know how long

58:01

your games take. And you could do

58:03

that over in our Discord Channel. Did

58:05

the Grinch come and visit you on

58:07

Christmas? You didn't get that board game

58:09

you were really hoping for? Well, if

58:11

that's the case, head over to miniature

58:14

market.com and get that game. Spoil yourself.

58:16

It was a hard 2024. The New

58:18

Year's coming, you deserve this. Get yourself

58:20

a new game. Get you one that

58:22

will bring you and all your friends

58:24

together for many, many, many hours. Go

58:26

back and listen to our show. We

58:28

can tell you games that last almost

58:30

five, six hours. That's nothing but a

58:32

good time in 2025. And if you

58:35

want a great price, definitely head over

58:37

to miniature market.com. Be sure to click

58:39

on our link on our homepage. Miniature

58:41

Market.com for all your gaming needs. In

58:43

video games I love tower defense games.

58:45

Roomemasters from Antoine Prono and Fun Forge

58:47

is a tower defense game. Roomasters from

58:49

Antoine Prono and Fun Forge is a

58:51

tower defense style game for board gamers.

58:54

In this game you're going to have

58:56

four. Rose, where monsters are going to

58:58

be encroaching on the player characters, you're

59:00

going to be rolling dice and resolving

59:02

the actions on those dice to try

59:04

to eliminate the monsters. Each of the

59:06

monsters have a certain symbol that you

59:08

need to use to defeat them. That

59:10

symbol happens to be on those handful

59:12

of dice that you're going to roll,

59:15

so you can assign those dice to

59:17

deal damage to the monsters to get

59:19

rid of them. Or you can use

59:21

the symbol on the dice to move

59:23

to a different region of the area

59:25

so that you can help or fight

59:27

others or move to another. zone as

59:29

it gets to

59:31

the base once a once

59:33

a monster gets

59:36

up against the base

59:38

it starts dealing

59:40

damage to it. is the

59:42

base is removed, you're base

59:44

is removed there's defeated

59:46

or if there's a

59:48

character standing there damage.

59:50

to take damage.

59:52

If their health is

59:54

reduced to zero

59:57

there's player elimination out of

59:59

out of the

1:00:01

game and if all

1:00:03

the players are are

1:00:05

gone, you will lose. But will

1:00:07

lose. But the

1:00:09

way you the is

1:00:11

to get through the

1:00:13

entire deck of

1:00:15

preset monsters that's done

1:00:18

at the beginning

1:00:20

of the game the

1:00:22

if you do do. You

1:00:24

went, well you're looking

1:00:26

for a particular a

1:00:28

at the deck. card at

1:00:30

which will trigger the end of the

1:00:32

game. And if you find it, then

1:00:34

you'll win. and you're waiting for it, to

1:00:37

arrive. You're waiting for the sun to

1:00:39

come over. Think of Gandalf. the Look to

1:00:41

the over. Think of Gandoff. the third day the third

1:00:43

day. Because the the sun's going to come

1:00:45

up and blind the the orks. Okay, sorry, but that

1:00:47

that doesn't happen here. They run away

1:00:49

and they they skitter away Now, one thing, the

1:00:51

the werewolves, the the warriors the skeletons archers in

1:00:54

the troll, they all have unique abilities.

1:00:56

For instance, the for instance the hit you from

1:00:58

far, far away. archers of the special can hit

1:01:00

you you know, the characters have away Some I

1:01:02

played one that was a healer, so I

1:01:04

was able to heal people up. So don't

1:01:06

think of it as like a constant played one that

1:01:08

was There is that ability to help one

1:01:11

another as you need to. think character, like I

1:01:13

think, competes always of people. there is that No two

1:01:15

players can occupy the same tower at at the

1:01:17

same time, so you have to be able

1:01:19

to maneuver and shift that around, swap positions

1:01:21

as needed. Every time someone goes, a new new

1:01:23

cards coming out. There's going to be, you

1:01:25

may be overwhelmed, so you have to be

1:01:28

able to shift the focus, know know, oh

1:01:30

my they're to come down, to be come over here

1:01:32

and beat these guys up you good. And then

1:01:34

the next time I'll come over here and I

1:01:36

can well up some arrows, I'll take an arrow

1:01:38

to the knee for you. good and is time I'll come

1:01:40

over here There was no dice. arrows I'll take up some

1:01:42

arrows to the other than if

1:01:44

you I'm confusing this with all this with

1:01:46

all the dice if you got doubles. You could spend, you

1:01:49

could spend mana in order to re-roll die. That's right.

1:01:51

you You spin the mana to allow

1:01:53

you to the dice, -roll the dice, which

1:01:55

was very important when I I was die,

1:01:57

it seemed it like was was always not

1:01:59

getting the... needed symbols to beat the monsters.

1:02:02

So you can also use manna for

1:02:04

your special abilities and there are some

1:02:06

monsters that when you beat them you

1:02:08

get manna back. So that's how you

1:02:11

read you and your manna. So this

1:02:13

is one of those games you know

1:02:15

when you're out there this is light-hearted

1:02:18

young game I'm king of monsters I

1:02:20

haven't played it. King of Tokyo, King

1:02:22

of Tokyo, that's it, King of the

1:02:24

Monsters, Geez. But this is, you know,

1:02:27

the BGYG it says eight and up,

1:02:29

I completely agree, this is a fun

1:02:31

fast game, you know, what was it,

1:02:34

zombie dice or something like that? Here

1:02:36

you go, here's something different, a little

1:02:38

bit more strategy, a little bit more

1:02:40

cooperation going on. So that's what this

1:02:43

game is going to bring to your

1:02:45

table, if you're interested in something like

1:02:47

a Yahzi style game. because the monsters

1:02:49

that you use, you could play with

1:02:52

the, people could swap around and do

1:02:54

different room masters with their different abilities.

1:02:56

So if you like a tower defense

1:02:59

style game, there's been many of these

1:03:01

come out every year. This is definitely

1:03:03

more kind of on the intro level,

1:03:05

but it is quick, easy to learn.

1:03:08

That is, a room masters from Fun

1:03:10

Forch. Five minute initiative is complete. We've

1:03:19

mentioned in the past that you should be

1:03:22

subscribed to the portal newsletter. Ignasi sends out

1:03:24

a newsletter every week and in one of

1:03:26

his recent newsletters he called out for a

1:03:29

cry of help. Looks like Robinson Crusoe is

1:03:31

in danger of leaving the top 100 on

1:03:33

BGG. So he's asked people to go out

1:03:35

there and review it. in order to give

1:03:38

us some traction to make sure that it

1:03:40

stays in the top 100. And one reason

1:03:42

why he's doing that is because the Collector's

1:03:45

Edition is in, you can go ahead and

1:03:47

pre-order it. Remember they came out that really

1:03:49

nice version. Tony, you and I unloaded a

1:03:51

lot of cases of that. At GenCon last

1:03:54

year, it's a big old heavy box. full

1:03:56

of goodies, but people still love the game.

1:03:58

They were still buying the game. And if

1:04:01

you never had a chance to play the

1:04:03

game, it's out there right now for pre-order.

1:04:05

It is one of those co-op games that

1:04:07

creates experiences. Ignasi likes to say, more games

1:04:10

that tell stories. And for every time I've

1:04:12

played this game, I've always had a story

1:04:14

to tell afterwards. So go help out Ignasi.

1:04:17

Go give him a like or a thumbs

1:04:19

up, rate the game on BGG, and if

1:04:21

you haven't got the game, go get a

1:04:23

copy for yourself and see what the buzz

1:04:26

is all about. I did my part. Yeah,

1:04:28

but what you rate it? Oh, you know

1:04:30

what, I rated it. I can't give anything

1:04:33

a 10. It's a nine. Wow. Have you

1:04:35

been keeping up with this year? I'm one

1:04:37

week behind, but yes, I have been watching

1:04:39

it. A lot of strategy in that. More

1:04:42

than I think people realize, so this is

1:04:44

basically, it's a trivia game where people have

1:04:46

various categories, and when they go up to

1:04:49

contestants battle one another, and images are shown

1:04:51

on a screen, and you have to relate

1:04:53

that image. to, or you have to say

1:04:55

what that image is. For instance, if I

1:04:58

were to do board games, maybe I'd flash

1:05:00

up a picture of Katan, and you would

1:05:02

have to say Katan, and then behind me,

1:05:04

Marty would see a picture of, say, Karkaso,

1:05:07

and he would say that. And this has

1:05:09

been going on various strange categories that are

1:05:11

out there, but overall, yes, I have been

1:05:14

keeping up with how it has folded out

1:05:16

with as players are eliminated, and what their

1:05:18

strategies are. I'm like, hmm. So I don't

1:05:20

know whether it's the episode that you haven't

1:05:23

seen or the one before but there was

1:05:25

one It was an older gentleman that made

1:05:27

the worst strategic move I can imagine when

1:05:30

it happened I told Vanessa I said I

1:05:32

don't know why at the end when

1:05:34

you win, you can

1:05:36

choose to go back

1:05:39

to the floor or compete

1:05:41

against somebody else. It

1:05:43

It was extremely obvious

1:05:46

at this point, You you

1:05:48

go back to the

1:05:50

floor the way the

1:05:52

floor was laid out,

1:05:55

there's a randomizer that

1:05:57

will determine who gets

1:05:59

to go next. kind He

1:06:02

was kind of safe

1:06:04

wasn't he wasn't necessarily

1:06:06

safe from that, but 'all

1:06:08

would take my chances

1:06:11

with that. He had

1:06:13

a had a that he

1:06:15

felt good about, but

1:06:18

he kept on playing

1:06:20

and I thought, thought... huge

1:06:22

mistake and he lost. lost.

1:06:24

And like, like, and even showed

1:06:27

the people on the

1:06:29

floor floor going, why he staying up

1:06:31

up there? So it is really a really a strategic

1:06:33

on whether you stay in play or

1:06:35

go back, but I do like well, year

1:06:37

they added the thing, in if you

1:06:39

win three a a row, you get a

1:06:41

time boost, an extra which an extra five

1:06:43

seconds over the opponent, which has been

1:06:45

huge. now I saw the one saw the one you're

1:06:47

talking about and I did enjoy the

1:06:49

one battle battle it was the Disney

1:06:51

characters. That was insane. were, oh

1:06:53

They were, keep up I

1:06:55

couldn't keep up with lot know a

1:06:57

lot of Disney characters and I was like,

1:06:59

okay, I'd have to pass on that

1:07:01

one. on that was like, these ladies are. ladies

1:07:03

are amazing. And more more year

1:07:05

year than last year, people not

1:07:08

realizing it's their turn. it's their turn. Oh yeah.

1:07:10

How do you know? They're staring at at the

1:07:12

screen? they don't they think it's

1:07:14

the other other turn at that

1:07:16

time. And it's not and not. Yeah,

1:07:19

once again we've said this before, before. Rob

1:07:21

does an amazing job on this. job

1:07:23

on this. it's just so much fun

1:07:25

to watch him host that and engage

1:07:27

with the contestants on that. But

1:07:29

yeah, you do have yeah, you favorites on

1:07:31

there. I'm waiting for waiting young lady

1:07:33

lady. When her grant went out he was my grandpa

1:07:35

she started crying and that's and guy

1:07:37

were talking about. you were talking cow. cow. So I

1:07:39

think this I I hope they bring it

1:07:41

back. They don't expand it anymore. 100

1:07:43

is a good number out there on

1:07:46

the floor. Yeah, some of the some of

1:07:48

the categories, I'm I'm like, I'm gonna

1:07:50

beat this category, but there was one.

1:07:52

was There was no way and I can't remember.

1:07:54

Oh, I hate Oh, can't remember that. was like, I

1:07:56

was like those people like I was like those people

1:07:58

pass pass pass pass pass Oh, the one

1:08:00

lady, oh, on Egypt, did you

1:08:02

see that? When she was getting...

1:08:05

Yes, I did see. And she

1:08:07

got really pissed at the end,

1:08:09

because she didn't know ISIS, the

1:08:11

Whig, and something else. And she...

1:08:13

And all she needed to know

1:08:15

was one, and she would have

1:08:17

won the game. The other person

1:08:19

would have ran out of time.

1:08:21

Yeah, and she was like, I

1:08:23

don't know what that is, a

1:08:26

Whig, a Whig, a Whig, a

1:08:28

R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R I've seen that symbol on

1:08:30

board games. I don't know what

1:08:32

it is. Oh, so many trivia.

1:08:34

So trivia has become a major

1:08:36

TV thing for me and I

1:08:38

enjoy watching a lot of them.

1:08:40

So. Well, then you might enjoy

1:08:42

watching this. Have you seen on

1:08:45

Amazon Prime Pop Culture Jeopardy? I

1:08:47

have seen it advertised. I can't

1:08:49

wait to watch it. I know

1:08:51

I won't do well. I forget

1:08:53

who's hosting. Oh, I do know.

1:08:55

Colin Jost, he's married to? Oh,

1:08:57

some avenger. Yeah, let's go on

1:08:59

your hands. That's still one of

1:09:01

my favorite where Emma or Alexa

1:09:03

could read your mind with him

1:09:06

and her. Oh, I've seen that.

1:09:08

You haven't seen those commercials? It

1:09:10

was a couple years ago where

1:09:12

she could read your mind and

1:09:14

he talked about, she says, well,

1:09:16

Colin, you need to go to

1:09:18

my screening and she goes, make

1:09:20

sure you're busy that night. Got

1:09:22

it. Do they write, do

1:09:25

he and Michael Shea write their own

1:09:27

jokes on Saturday Night Live for a

1:09:29

weekend update, except for the ones at

1:09:31

the end of the year? I don't,

1:09:33

I don't know. Okay. I don't know

1:09:35

if the end of the year have

1:09:37

come out yet, but that is my

1:09:40

favorite bit now. on S&L when they

1:09:42

write the jokes for each other. That

1:09:44

is so fun. Anyway, he's a really

1:09:46

good host too. I think since you

1:09:48

know him, you'll like him as a

1:09:50

host. I think his first episode, he

1:09:52

worked, didn't get into the groove, but

1:09:54

by the fourth or fifth, he's kind

1:09:57

of finding his groove and having more

1:09:59

fun with it. He's not playing Alex

1:10:01

Trebeck. He's having fun with the contestants

1:10:03

and stuff, because it is pop culture,

1:10:05

but... Here's the thing, I thought I

1:10:07

would do good, nope, nope. Some of

1:10:09

these are hard, hard. They're like, I

1:10:12

mean, some of the categories, like, okay,

1:10:14

video games, okay, I ran the video

1:10:16

game category, I got that one, but

1:10:18

then there are other ones, I'm like,

1:10:20

I don't know, I mean, because there

1:10:22

be anything, right? It could be on

1:10:24

teen romance novels, it could be on

1:10:26

TV reality stars, I'm like, I'm out.

1:10:29

I don't know any reality stars. Yeah,

1:10:31

oh I'm looking forward to it. I

1:10:33

was like one from the floor and

1:10:35

then they did the female pop singers

1:10:37

or something on the floor and I

1:10:39

was like, forget this. But yeah, no,

1:10:41

I'm looking forward to it. And don't

1:10:44

they do teams? It's like bar trivia.

1:10:46

Yeah, each team is a consist of

1:10:48

three people, which also makes it go

1:10:50

quicker because anybody, then you're basically about

1:10:52

nine people answering a set of three.

1:10:54

So you get through every board every

1:10:56

single time. All right, so okay. Yeah,

1:10:58

I'm looking forward to doing that. Now

1:11:01

we had to move board game night

1:11:03

recently to from our normal night to

1:11:05

earlier night because I thought maybe Marty

1:11:07

had some major thing going on where

1:11:09

he was going to do something for

1:11:11

work, maybe work Christmas party. So we

1:11:13

finish up board game night and Marty

1:11:16

goes, yep, thanks for moving it. I

1:11:18

got the video game awards tomorrow night.

1:11:20

I'm like, are you got, is that

1:11:22

a real thing and he's like, oh

1:11:24

yeah. So real that Harrison Ford went

1:11:26

on stage. He was there. Harrison Ford

1:11:28

was there when, uh, yes, a Troy

1:11:30

Baker who voiced Indiana Jones and the

1:11:33

latest indie game was there and then

1:11:35

Harrison came out and said he did

1:11:37

a good job and stuff like that.

1:11:39

So yeah, you got some big name

1:11:41

stars that'll come on and do this.

1:11:43

It's in LA. Indiana Jones game. It's

1:11:45

at 86 on Metacritic. I know my

1:11:48

son of all thinks he wants it,

1:11:50

only if it goes on sale. But

1:11:52

I'm like, okay, I'm like, what kind

1:11:54

of game is it? He goes, I

1:11:56

can't really, it's, I don't really know

1:11:58

what it is. It's an adventure game,

1:12:00

but there's also puzzle elements, because it's

1:12:02

an Indiana Jones game, so there's gonna

1:12:05

be some puzzles in there. I've heard

1:12:07

it's actually pretty good. I've heard the

1:12:09

story is actually decent, so it's one

1:12:11

of those things I wouldn't mind checking

1:12:13

out too. But there was obviously two

1:12:15

big winners that night. One is the

1:12:17

RPG game you maybe never heard of,

1:12:20

called Metaphor. It's a game that came

1:12:22

out probably in Q3, it was huge.

1:12:24

Everybody that played really enjoyed it, so

1:12:26

it won a lot of awards, but

1:12:28

the big one of the night was

1:12:30

Astrobot. You thought it was a good

1:12:32

game? It deserves it. It's one of

1:12:34

those things that kudos to them for

1:12:37

coming out with a fun, enjoyable platformer

1:12:39

that only plays in 15 hours. It's

1:12:41

cute, it's light, anybody can enjoy it.

1:12:43

I mean, it deserved it. Another big

1:12:45

one too was Balattro. It won a

1:12:47

lot of awards too, especially for India

1:12:49

Awards and stuff like that. Okay, that

1:12:52

guy's just raking in the money, isn't

1:12:54

he? Yeah, it's a one-a one-person divved

1:12:56

deaf deaf-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de-de- Good for him. That's the

1:12:58

way, that's how you do it. Forget

1:13:00

all these big-name studios. Just come out

1:13:02

with something simple that you know, that's

1:13:04

got a hook. You know, bring in,

1:13:06

it keeps people, keep playing these types

1:13:09

of game. Slay the spire. Yeah, play

1:13:11

the spire. Yeah, play the spire. Yeah,

1:13:13

exactly. Oh, and I saw where, and

1:13:15

I was a little thing, Sun Law

1:13:17

was calling me about. Oh, did you

1:13:19

see the Whitcher, the Whitzercher trailer? Which

1:13:21

are four is a big one and

1:13:24

that was announced. There were several big

1:13:26

ones I'm trying to think of anything

1:13:28

that you might be interested in probably

1:13:30

not Okay I went upstairs I was

1:13:32

upstairs I was upstairs cleaning and I

1:13:34

looked into the PlayStation catalog and I'm

1:13:36

like yeah I still need to play

1:13:38

that yeah I still need to play

1:13:41

that and now we looked earlier in

1:13:43

the thing I still got that on

1:13:45

steam I still got $40 credit and

1:13:47

on steam. What am I doing? Why

1:13:49

do I crank up Guild Wars 2

1:13:51

every freaking night? I honestly don't know.

1:13:53

I just kind of had to take

1:13:56

a break for a bit and try

1:13:58

something else. That's why I'm being... Kind

1:14:00

of playing some other stuff in my

1:14:02

backlog. backlog. And they started up the new

1:14:04

new day where you collect stuff. I'm

1:14:06

like, I don't know. It's kind

1:14:08

of my least favorite. of my least favorite. Yeah, I

1:14:10

right. Well, guess what y 'all, we

1:14:12

are here for for year 13. We're not We're

1:14:14

not going away unless something better

1:14:16

comes up. We get a good announcement

1:14:18

or maybe we win the lottery. I

1:14:20

was to say, we don't do this isn't paying

1:14:22

for anything. lottery wouldn't make a difference

1:14:25

at all. We're actually making a lot

1:14:27

easier. It's like, like, oh, okay, now can just

1:14:29

kind of record kind of record you want to.

1:14:31

and play games it can become a

1:14:33

job. to. Then it can should be thankful

1:14:35

we haven't won the lottery Then

1:14:37

you'd have us we haven't something with

1:14:39

an actual production team. Who knows? or

1:14:41

something with an actual rolling dice Who knows? That's

1:14:44

right. But keep rolling dice. Here's

1:14:55

a New Year's for you. If you have not joined

1:14:57

our Discord not joined make a resolution to do

1:14:59

so. We have a lot of fun over there

1:15:01

talking about a lot of different things. And

1:15:03

as always, you can follow us on all a

1:15:05

socials at things. and you can

1:15:07

support the show over at follow us on

1:15:10

.com. at Dyson names, and you

1:15:12

can support the show over at By

1:15:14

Me make sure that you are able

1:15:16

to get your sure needs. able to get

1:15:18

your gaming needs done, Make

1:15:20

sure that you're sure that are protected. Head

1:15:23

over to to Game Toppers. LLC.com

1:15:25

for all your game all your

1:15:28

needs. and all. So miniature

1:15:30

markets for all your markets for

1:15:32

all Let me, I'm gonna strike that. Head over,

1:15:34

hold on. Yeah, I was like, where like

1:15:36

where am I going

1:15:38

with this? Oh, hey, go everywhere for your gaming go

1:15:40

everywhere for your gaming needs Go

1:15:43

what i'm thinking got a miniature

1:15:45

market got a portal games for for your

1:15:47

needs. I was like, where was like am I

1:15:49

the hell am i going with

1:15:51

this what am i saying this

1:15:53

for for? Heather,

1:15:57

I'm Hugh I'm Hugh from Poderation. If

1:15:59

you'll... Like episode, why not check out

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