0:02

Welcome to Which Game First,

0:04

where we explore the hilariously

0:06

huge world of board games. Did

0:08

we find any hidden treasures

0:10

you've been missing out on? Let's

0:13

find out. First up this week,

0:15

we travel forward in time

0:17

so we can shop in a

0:19

mall from the 1990s in

0:21

Superstore 3,000. Next up, we built

0:24

pyramids to honor the gods one

0:26

block at a time in Imhotel.

0:29

And lastly, we find out

0:32

just how high numbers

0:34

can be stacked in

0:36

Inber 9. Stack them

0:38

up, stack them. I'm

0:40

your host, Evan Bernstein,

0:42

joined by my intrepid

0:44

game explorers, Mike Grenier.

0:46

That is me, everybody.

0:48

I am in the

0:50

house. And Edpovolitis. Hello,

0:52

everyone. Look at your

0:54

game. That's Ed, just

0:56

being Ed. All right

0:59

our first game up this

1:01

week is in fact Super

1:04

Store 3,000 designed by Rodrigo

1:06

published by Yeah

1:08

published by Space Cowboys

1:10

in 2024 number of

1:12

players two to four ages

1:15

ten and up playing time

1:17

30 to 45 minutes and

1:19

Mike you are going to tell

1:21

us what is in the box

1:25

The cover of the box shows us

1:27

a mall of the future, complete

1:29

with flying cars, super

1:32

tall, skyscraping structures, robotic

1:35

patrons, and advertisements that

1:37

practically scream for your

1:39

attention. When we throw the doors

1:42

open, we see 96 mall element tiles.

1:44

One dispenser 3,000! Whatever

1:46

that is 56 customers 16

1:49

attraction cards 14 attraction

1:51

tiles four main entrance tiles

1:53

one docking bay mini

1:55

board eight docking Bay tiles

1:58

12 starting money tiles, 12

2:00

balloon tokens, four rulers, and a first

2:02

player, Standy. And that's what's in the

2:04

box. Better to have balloon tokens than

2:06

token balloons, I guess. But before I

2:09

tell you, if we should store this

2:11

game away or not, I'm going to

2:13

give you a quick, quick, quick overview

2:15

on how it's played. Let's see if

2:17

I can do this justice. All right,

2:20

Super Store, $3,000 is a tile placement

2:22

game in which players... are designing a

2:24

retro futuristic mall in the year 2964.

2:26

The object of the game is to

2:28

build the tallest and most incredible mall

2:31

to satisfy as many customers as possible.

2:33

Each player builds their own mall by

2:35

placing shop tiles and being the first

2:37

to meet the criteria to collect the

2:39

unique attraction tiles that will make your

2:41

building even more exceptional. In turn, players

2:44

are going to purchase stores, entrances, and

2:46

other components that comprise a shopping mall.

2:48

They're going to build it piece by

2:50

piece in order to satisfy the customers

2:52

wants and desires as they come through

2:55

the entrance of the mall. For example,

2:57

your main entrance has three customers to

2:59

start. One of those customers might be

3:01

looking to shop, another one wants a

3:03

haircut, and the other one wants some

3:05

books. Well, you're going to want to

3:08

try to satisfy those customers by building

3:10

a shopping store, and then a barber

3:12

shop, and a bookstore. Make sure you

3:14

build these shops within three spaces of

3:16

that entrance. That was a lesson I

3:19

learned very difficult in a very difficult

3:21

way. Yeah, make sure you build it

3:23

within three spaces of that entrance because

3:25

that's as far as a customer is

3:27

willing to walk. Lazy people there are

3:30

2964 please. I mean 24 come on.

3:32

The more satisfied customers the more victory

3:34

points is also victory points for certain

3:36

set collections and bonuses for unleashing specialty

3:38

stores and attractions and attractions. All players

3:40

will buy their main stores from the

3:43

market for, well, zero, one, two, or

3:45

three dollars. ever since. We try to

3:47

have the most of the same type

3:49

of store in order to earn the

3:51

most VPs and don't forget those bonus

3:54

VPs along the way and as always

3:56

the most victory points wins the game

3:58

and they will receive an oversized set

4:00

of novelty scissors to cut the ribbon

4:02

at the opening of their award-winning super

4:05

store. Actually, scissors not include. We played

4:07

this game on board game arena. And

4:09

before we get into like how it

4:11

looked, which is what we usually start,

4:13

I am going to say that I

4:15

did, obviously we played online, but I

4:18

also looked at the components of the

4:20

physical game itself, I wish we had

4:22

played the physical game actually. I know,

4:24

it's a lot going on there. I

4:26

mean, I don't like paper money or

4:29

anything, but uh, well, I get that.

4:31

But no, it does look really cool,

4:33

the really vibrant colors and stuff like

4:35

that, and all the tiles sticking sticking

4:37

together, that that that that that would

4:39

be cool in person, that would be

4:42

cool in person. Yeah, I like the

4:44

art style of the game. They call

4:46

it retro, retro, futureistic. I definitely got

4:48

that Justin feel like in the art.

4:50

Yes. Absolutely with the flying cars and

4:53

stuff on the cover. The one thing

4:55

I was going to say about that

4:57

too, just to add on to that,

4:59

is that they had an interesting task

5:01

of having to not only put this

5:04

game in the future, but making the

5:06

people that are there in the game

5:08

in the future. what they would imagine

5:10

the past would look like. Trying to

5:12

do both those things at the same

5:14

time, which is kind of funny. A

5:17

very good trick. Yeah, no, the color

5:19

palette's great. Very vibrant colors. And, you

5:21

know, just how it all works and

5:23

stacks together and even just things like

5:25

the board that, you know, the, what

5:28

was it called, the dispenser 3,000 or

5:30

the, yeah. Well, it's a super short

5:32

3,000. So the dispenser 3, got. Cotton

5:34

room for room for your customer! And

5:36

I like how they kind of slide

5:38

out almost almost like almost like a

5:41

vending machine Yeah, you guys, did you

5:43

see cabin in the woods where they

5:45

were like, all the horror creatures were

5:47

in boxes that they would like shift

5:49

around and slide, that's what it reminded

5:52

me of. All right, so we're building

5:54

a mall. All right, so we're building

5:56

a mall here and Mikey, what were

5:58

your kind of, what are your initial

6:00

impressions of this game? I mean, my

6:03

first thought was that it was a

6:05

little tricky to understand how I was

6:07

scoring and what I was scoring, just

6:09

mostly, partially because I was online and

6:11

I was like a book coordination. anything

6:13

so like when I was trying to

6:16

put my rooms together I know that

6:18

you were trying to collect sets that

6:20

are touching each other but the way

6:22

to actually score them was tricky because

6:24

you have to have a door and

6:27

then you have to have like certain

6:29

amount of spaces between the kind of

6:31

thing you're feeding into the room and

6:33

you need to have people to actually

6:35

go to the room so it took

6:37

me a couple rounds to figure out

6:40

what was actually going on. I think

6:42

I think I'm there with you and

6:44

how about you Ed? Yeah I mean

6:46

there's definitely a point- You are many

6:48

different ways to get points and you're

6:51

trying to build your, I mean I

6:53

like the idea here where the customers

6:55

walking into the mall and you're custom

6:57

making a store just for that one

6:59

customer. Yeah at that moment right? Holding.

7:02

Yeah. Like Billy Bob just walk in.

7:04

Let me get up a haircut salon

7:06

just for him right there. Boop. Yeah

7:08

new t-shirts and a haircut and a

7:10

haircut and you got two stores that

7:12

Billy Bob wants to go to. Isn't

7:15

that nice? You know, just a modular

7:17

world in the year 3000, I suppose.

7:19

I wish they could have expanded on

7:21

that a little bit and made you

7:23

be able to move the rooms around

7:26

a little bit. I think that would

7:28

be kind of fun, like, as if

7:30

somebody was walking in there to go

7:32

to them. Yeah, that's right. I don't

7:34

recall there being any kind of mechanism

7:36

to move a store once it's placed.

7:39

I think it stays stays. But there

7:41

is room for expansion, right? I mean,

7:43

both horizontally and vertically and vertically? Yeah,

7:45

especially vertically. They seem like a big

7:47

part of the game is trying to

7:50

build your mall up, up, up, up

7:52

and away. Man, like a tall mall

7:54

is good, yeah. And they had these

7:56

weird building like accessory sort of like

7:58

special rooms that you could build up

8:01

onto the like the higher levels of

8:03

it and you get a chunk of

8:05

points for them But you have to

8:07

meet certain criteria down below before you

8:09

can stack one of those kind of

8:11

stores up above there Yeah, I said

8:14

to call the attractions and yeah, like

8:16

you're building these rooms and all the

8:18

other rooms all like the same size

8:20

and shape and everything different color to

8:22

give you like the theme and symbols

8:25

that tell you what type But the

8:27

attraction does just flat out weird. Big

8:29

weird shaped buildings like L shape that

8:31

takes up like the space of like

8:33

six tiles, you know, like and so

8:35

you have to be planning ahead if

8:38

you want to stack those. things on

8:40

to your mall and they're worth a

8:42

significant amount of points so it's worth

8:44

thinking ahead on those. Yeah because you

8:46

can wind up blocking yourself if you

8:49

have a grand design and you do

8:51

wind up placing one of these odd-shaped

8:53

attractions in the mall that could really

8:55

mess up your planers. I was all

8:57

about that I ended up getting like

9:00

three or four of them when I

9:02

was just like I was all about

9:04

those big buildings that's where the majority

9:06

of my points came from. Yeah right

9:08

those special areas Mike you're all over

9:10

those oh yeah I love it just

9:13

made them all look weird and that's

9:15

what I wanted so but that's okay

9:17

it also you know unleashed some things

9:19

you know extra victory points and then

9:21

what there were also I think some

9:24

powers can be achieved or special movements

9:26

they're kind of like end-game bonuses like

9:28

if you you know for every number

9:30

of this room or whatever there's a

9:32

bunch of different things that you get

9:34

for having them or some one of

9:37

them was just like straight up chunk

9:39

of points by it so There's just

9:41

a bunch of points plus those weird

9:43

shape buildings allow you to get places

9:45

faster because they count it's one location

9:48

or like the people only want to

9:50

go three spaces. Oh that's true. Well

9:52

that giant room counts it's one face.

9:54

Yes it does. And you can connect

9:56

to the end of it so like

9:59

you're getting all the way across the

10:01

mall and go back down on the

10:03

other side and it's like really really

10:05

cool. So Ed, were you going for

10:07

the big big big attractions? I mean,

10:09

obviously I was trying to. Mikey got

10:12

a good number of them. I was

10:14

trying to focus on like one of

10:16

the scoring categories was having the most

10:18

satisfied customers of a particular type. So

10:20

just bringing customers in and satisfying them

10:23

was a good way to get points.

10:25

Yeah, it's probably the best way to

10:27

get points if you're focused on it

10:29

from the beginning, I think. Like, I

10:31

did fall behind on that. because I

10:33

was trying to get to those other

10:36

criteria and they just didn't make up

10:38

enough of the difference. I think a

10:40

cool part of it with a sliding

10:42

market where you're kind of hoping that

10:44

blue room comes down so you can

10:47

buy it and afford it but not

10:49

so far down that Mikey takes it

10:51

before you can get it. Right. That's

10:53

what I was gonna say too is

10:55

the the randomness. This is my least

10:58

favorite part of the game probably. I

11:00

understood why it was there but like

11:02

you're trying to. trying to do something

11:04

here, you know, I'm waiting for a

11:06

cheeseburger building with a blue, like, you

11:08

know, color to it. And there's a

11:11

lot of, you know, there's a lot

11:13

of things that could come up. You

11:15

know what I mean? So the randomness

11:17

factor could have you waiting the whole

11:19

game for one perfect thing that you

11:22

never get. Yeah, there's only eight possible

11:24

stores you can ever choose from to

11:26

build. As far as the normal buildings

11:28

go, two columns, four stores per column

11:30

cost zero through three. and he had

11:32

to spend three dollars was tough. Yeah,

11:35

the money was tight in this game.

11:37

Yeah, money is, money is tight. Well,

11:39

you could always give a turn just

11:41

to clak cash. Yeah, that's true. But

11:43

that's, I mean, any game like this

11:46

where you're doing like a Cefoeffoe thing,

11:48

skipping a turn is a really rough

11:50

thing. I know. It's painful to have

11:52

to. You just fall behind immediately. Unless

11:54

everybody ends up getting forced to do

11:57

that, you really fall behind doing that.

11:59

Unless you can. Unless you have the

12:01

perfect play in mind then maybe it

12:03

might be worth it. Yeah, I mean

12:05

there's plenty of times where the zero

12:07

cost building is what somebody else really

12:10

wants and you don't need it at

12:12

all. You need the four cost building.

12:14

But by the time that other people

12:16

buy the cheap buildings they need, the

12:18

building you need gets swept up. So

12:21

it's just rough. It's really rough. It's

12:23

randomness wise. All right. Well, let's find

12:25

out if we are going to dig

12:27

up or bury Super Store 3000. We're

12:29

going to start with Mike. Um, you

12:31

know, I like the bright look of

12:34

the tiles, the fun art that was

12:36

like really, uh, really threaded the needle

12:38

for, you know, for the theme. But

12:40

the act of organizing the buildings while

12:42

relying on luck for those tiles to

12:45

show up for me was kind of

12:47

frustrating and at the same time not

12:49

super exciting. So, it was okay, but

12:51

I think I'm buried from the frustration

12:53

level for me. Uh, Ed. It's a

12:56

wacky race to build a best mall

12:58

you can. The weirdly shaped attractions keep

13:00

it interesting and a bit challenging. I

13:02

didn't quite bring me to the point

13:04

of wanting to buy this game. But

13:06

I'll play it again. It's placed on

13:09

the table. So for that reason, I'm

13:11

going to give it a light dig

13:13

up. Nice. Oh, okay. Well, for me,

13:15

Super Store 3,000, it kind of reminding

13:17

me of some other games we've played

13:20

where you know, you kind of... build

13:22

as you go in order to satisfy

13:24

customers or tourists or whatever it is

13:26

you have in front of you. This

13:28

game did kind of feel like designing

13:30

a mall to me so it's a

13:33

decent theme and I thought like most

13:35

games of this variety there's lots of

13:37

different ways to score and that leads

13:39

to or translates to good replayability and

13:41

I think those are good features you

13:44

want in a game and I do

13:46

want to go back and try to

13:48

build some more malls so I'm gonna

13:50

dig it up. What is the wackiest

13:52

mall attraction that you've ever seen? We

13:55

want to know! Please contact us! We

13:57

are at Which Game First on? All

13:59

social media! All

14:03

right, let's find out what's been

14:05

happening lately with which game first

14:07

Mike you got some things Yeah,

14:09

I mean I think our game

14:11

that we've been working on I'll

14:13

tell you that the working title

14:15

the game is care C-A-R-E And

14:18

it is up on tabletop simulator

14:20

now and it is playable. It's

14:22

early prototype still but it is

14:24

playable. So invites are going to

14:26

start going out to interested parties

14:28

so we can get some play

14:30

test done. Yeah, it's one of

14:32

the best and most tedious parts

14:34

of designing a game right now

14:37

happening. Definitely. So feel free to

14:39

reach a whole bunch of people

14:41

to come over and break it.

14:43

That's right. Come break our game.

14:45

Isn't that the point? It must

14:47

be broken. Yes, we must break.

14:49

It is the scientific method of

14:51

game design. It is a scientific

14:54

method if you think it sure

14:56

is. So it definitely is reach

14:58

out to us and let us

15:00

know if you're interested in. playing

15:02

care, which Mikey has done a

15:04

great amount of work in putting

15:06

it all together. So thanks. Ed,

15:08

what do you have got going

15:10

on? Well, Monday night is our

15:13

wish game first game night. Yeah.

15:15

We're playing a new game that

15:17

most of us probably haven't played

15:19

before. And many of us haven't

15:21

read the rules. So it's just

15:23

an experience. Many isn't me. That's

15:25

okay. It's more entertaining that idea.

15:27

It is good for me to

15:29

learn on the spot like everybody

15:32

else is when they watch so

15:34

I enjoy doing that You know

15:36

it brings up the hitting rule

15:38

for the night. Yep Which is

15:40

it's so funny that it's always

15:42

unintentional. There's a rule that Ed

15:44

forgets to mention that ends up

15:46

being critically important about halfway through

15:48

the game somewhere and then And

15:51

then it snaps and we're like,

15:53

oh man, I wish I'd known

15:55

that since the beginning of the

15:57

game. And I know he's not

15:59

doing it on purpose. I know

16:01

it, but it happens a lot.

16:03

And it's fun. Part of the

16:05

fun of exploring games. And as

16:08

I said, that is every Monday

16:10

night it. 8 o'clock on the

16:12

east coast of the United States.

16:14

That's the time zone. So check

16:16

us out. We do try stream

16:18

it. In other words, we broadcast

16:20

it out to our YouTube and

16:22

our Twitch and our Facebook simultaneously.

16:24

So catch us at any of

16:27

those spots. Also, don't forget our

16:29

website, which game first.com. That is

16:31

the home base for all things,

16:33

which game first? All of our

16:35

episodes of there, everything we've reviewed

16:37

is there. And also what's there

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is the become a patron button.

16:41

I don't know that we can

16:43

really do this, but thank you

16:46

so much. We were only asking,

16:48

we've only ever asked, we will

16:50

only ever ask a minimum, $3

16:52

a month. That is it. If

16:54

you can do more, great, but

16:56

$3 will get you an exclusive

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podcast just for patrons of which

17:00

game first called? Bonus points. Bonus

17:02

points comes out every other week

17:05

and we also invite you to

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come and listen to us record

17:09

that live in our Discord channel,

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become part of the audience. We

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have a lot of fun. And

17:15

the topics range from all things

17:17

having to do with board games

17:19

and we even stretch out into

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other areas occasionally, other types of

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games and just life in general.

17:26

It's a fun little podcast and

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we would love for you to

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be a part of it. So

17:32

thank you for your continued support

17:34

and always, which game first. Thank

17:36

you so much. Oh, hang on,

17:38

hang on, hang on. I got

17:41

a question. Wait, wait. We have

17:43

a breaking news from Mike. No,

17:45

no, it's just a question going

17:47

out to our people out there.

17:49

Go ahead. Would you like it

17:51

if we started using like an

17:53

Amazon partnership kind of thing to

17:55

throw the games that we reviewed

17:57

up on there so you can

18:00

get it through us? Let us

18:02

know what you think about that.

18:04

That's a good idea. I have

18:06

not explored through that possibility yet,

18:08

but I was wondering, you know,

18:10

you see all these brand new

18:12

games from us. that you've never

18:14

heard of before and if you

18:17

like what we said about them

18:19

you can just click right there

18:21

and go pick it up. Sounds

18:23

like a good idea to me

18:25

but we'd like your feedback as

18:27

well on that and we'll continue

18:29

to remind you to give us

18:31

feedback on that in the weeks

18:33

to come so thank you for

18:36

that. Now run the bumper. Oh

18:38

you want me to run it

18:40

again? Double bumper! Yeah! Our next

18:42

game up this week is Imhotep!

18:44

Imhotep! Designed by Rah and Osiras!

18:46

No! Design by... Originally designed by...

18:48

Original Concept by God! No, designed

18:50

by Phil Walker Harding. Published by

18:52

Cosmos in the year 2016, number

18:55

of players two to four ages

18:57

are ten and up. The playing

18:59

time is 40 minutes and Mikey,

19:01

hey tell us what's in the

19:03

box. The cover of the box

19:05

shows an ancient Egyptian engineer looking

19:07

down thoughtfully on a map, a

19:09

magical map, which is constructing a

19:11

future monument before his very eyes.

19:14

When we open the box we

19:16

discover 120 wooden cubes, five sightboards,

19:18

a scoring track, eight little ship

19:20

tokens, four supply sled tokens, 21

19:22

round cards, and 34 market cards.

19:24

And that's what's in the box.

19:26

Well, before I tell you just

19:28

how well this game was built,

19:31

wasn't built in a day, I'll

19:33

give you the quick overview on

19:35

how it's played. Mhotep is a,

19:37

I'm calling it a worker placement

19:39

game. Where players become builders in

19:41

Egypt who want to emulate the

19:43

first and best-known architect there, namely

19:45

Imhotep. Over six rounds, players will

19:47

move stones, which are represented by

19:50

wooden cubes, by boat to create

19:52

five seminal monuments and on a

19:54

turn, players choose one of four

19:56

actions. They will procure new stones,

19:58

load stones onto a boat, bring

20:00

a boat to a monument, or...

20:02

Play an action card. Four choices.

20:04

There are several boats on which

20:06

to load your stones, and the

20:09

order in which the stones are

20:11

loaded are important. When a boat

20:13

is either mostly filled, meaning all

20:15

the spots are... taken except for

20:17

one, or if all the spaces

20:19

are filled, a player can then

20:21

choose to sell the boat to

20:23

a port of their choosing. Five

20:25

ports to choose from, the market,

20:28

the pyramid, the temple, the burial

20:30

chamber, and the obelisk. Each port

20:32

scores points differently. While this sounds

20:34

easy, naturally the other players constantly

20:36

thwart your building plans by carrying

20:38

out plans of their own. Only

20:40

those with the best timing and

20:42

the stones to back up their

20:45

plans will prove to be Egypt's

20:47

best builder. Nice one. We played

20:49

this, this is a sport game

20:51

arena, right? Yes. We did. We

20:53

did. We did. And I don't

20:55

know, what do you guys think

20:57

of how this game looked and

20:59

played on BGA? I mean, on

21:01

BGA, I think it looked pretty

21:04

cool because they did kind of

21:06

like emulate the block in a

21:08

way. And it's kind of a

21:10

shorter 3Dish faction in a way.

21:12

Yeah, there's like a dimensionality to

21:14

the game. I played it online

21:16

and in person. I mean, it

21:18

is a little more fun in

21:20

person, had little cubes that stack

21:23

and top of each other, but

21:25

yeah, online did give us a

21:27

sense of that verticality. And little

21:29

ship tokens were pretty cool too

21:31

to have on here. Again, it's

21:33

just like a flat token where

21:35

you put your little, you load

21:37

the stones on to and move

21:39

them to the location. It was

21:42

good. It was a good online

21:44

experience and a good offline experience.

21:46

It definitely has that classic euro

21:48

game look and feel. Oh yes.

21:50

Yeah. Anytime you see a cube,

21:52

you know. And cubes stacked up

21:54

the way they are in this

21:56

game. Like, okay, you're a game.

21:59

But these are not your small

22:01

euro cube. These are good-sized cubes.

22:03

They feel like you could build

22:05

something with them. It's like crazy.

22:07

No, I'm scared. They are big

22:09

and chunky though, for sure. Yeah,

22:11

it's the nice chunky cubes are

22:13

fun to stack in top of

22:15

each other. But like, you gotta

22:18

make sure you get them on

22:20

the ship in the right order.

22:22

Yeah, which is easier. than done

22:24

because what there's other players are

22:26

kind of not not following your

22:28

script uh-huh they think they're playing

22:30

their own game when they're not

22:32

playing and they're not playing your

22:34

game right so how dare them

22:37

or they are playing your game

22:39

and there's just getting in away

22:41

of it yeah my god it's

22:43

it's so crazy so like when

22:45

you're when the ship fills up

22:47

the person who filled it up

22:49

moves it to land but there's

22:51

only a few different places to

22:54

land and it does different stuff

22:56

depending where it lands. So like

22:58

you you could be thinking oh

23:00

man I got my cubes in

23:02

here in the perfect order but

23:04

then instead of building a monument

23:06

they go to like build the

23:08

pyramid or they go to build

23:10

something else and you're like oh

23:13

now they're completely wrong. Yeah. So

23:15

interesting how like yeah you put

23:17

I just put two cubes on

23:19

a boat awesome but Mikey's the

23:21

one to decide to move it

23:23

and move it. And you're going

23:25

to the wrong point. You're going

23:27

to the wrong point. No, I

23:29

don't need to go to the

23:32

library or a lot of stone.

23:34

Come on. Oh, it's the worst.

23:36

It's the worst. That happens a

23:38

lot in this game. It really

23:40

does. It really does. You really,

23:42

you have to be flexible. Yeah,

23:44

I think it makes sense to

23:46

diversify where you put your cube.

23:48

So at least you can do

23:51

something when you land, you know,

23:53

like. I definitely need to have

23:55

a backup plan, plan B, plan

23:57

C, plan C, plan C, plan

23:59

C. Remember the culture here, you

24:01

know, it's higher glyphs, we're talking

24:03

about, so you have to have

24:05

a plan cat, plan bird, plan

24:08

eyeball, plan, plan snake, yeah, plan,

24:10

walk that. I feel like there's

24:12

like a lot of simplicity here

24:14

in. what happens after the ship

24:16

sails? You know, there's not really

24:18

much choice. It's like you're here,

24:20

your cube is next to put

24:22

on the board, that's it. Yeah,

24:24

I like the simplicity in the

24:27

game. The rules are not that

24:29

hard to follow. Yeah, the complexity

24:31

is what everybody else is doing

24:33

to you. Yeah. It's true. It's

24:35

true. It's really loading the ships.

24:37

It's funny because the strategy looks

24:39

like it would be on the

24:41

other side of the, you know,

24:43

on the other side of the

24:46

the denial there where you're actually

24:48

putting the cubes down. But really,

24:50

the complexity more like strategy comes

24:52

in when you're loading the ships

24:54

up. Yes. I think I agree

24:56

with that. And there's a certain...

24:58

uneasiness when you have to on

25:00

your turn you have no choice

25:02

but you have to procure new

25:05

stones right so it's like oh

25:07

no I have to basically give

25:09

up a turn of getting some

25:11

decent position on one of these

25:13

boats by only just getting more

25:15

stones and it's like oh please

25:17

I can't hold on a whole

25:19

other turn I have to wait

25:22

I tried a strategy of making

25:24

sure that I didn't miss a

25:26

turn of putting stones on there's

25:28

a couple things you can do

25:30

to like augment how many stones

25:32

you're putting on the ships But

25:34

I was like, you know, I'm

25:36

going to spread him out and

25:38

I'm going to have the most

25:41

stones going in. And there's not

25:43

really that many bad choices. But

25:45

man, Ed really stuck it to

25:47

me when he like a few

25:49

times. So I'm like, well, the

25:51

only one that would be bad

25:53

for me is if he did

25:55

this and then he'd do it

25:57

every time. Oh, really? Yeah. I

26:00

think for me, a lot of

26:02

it would. I want to get

26:04

these stones to certain places or

26:06

certain places. No, wait another turn

26:08

to see if I can load

26:10

it up some more. Yeah. I

26:12

could say, you know what, these

26:14

guys are gonna just get a

26:16

screw of me. I might as

26:19

well take this suboptimal both. Yes.

26:21

Oh yeah. But put it where

26:23

I needed to go rather than

26:25

waiting for it to be slightly

26:27

better and then go where I

26:29

don't need it. That's the constant

26:31

struggle between me and Ed and

26:33

any of these games. It's like

26:36

my greed versus Ed practical like

26:38

he'll take a hit just to

26:40

make sure he doesn't like, you

26:42

know. He gets at least some

26:44

of what he wants. I'm like,

26:46

I want all or nothing. M-O-T-T-It's

26:48

a nicely designed euro game. The

26:50

theme is nicely incorporated into the

26:52

mechanics of the game along with

26:55

its components. Big cube, yes! The

26:57

constant need to keep readjusting your

26:59

plan, it's fun, and keep the

27:01

game engaging. As you act your

27:03

opponent, why did you do that?

27:05

All right, Mike beat that. Yeah,

27:07

so I found it very important

27:09

in this game to be not

27:11

only flexible with your strategy, but

27:14

also not be too greedy, which

27:16

I did neither of. I was

27:18

maximally greedy and I got maximally

27:20

punished for it. Yeah, I got

27:22

crushed. But it didn't dull my

27:24

enjoyment in this game. I'll definitely

27:26

play it again, even if I

27:28

lose. So that's a good sign.

27:31

I definitely did this up. Immontep,

27:33

it's a relatively easy game to

27:35

learn and play. The keys, for

27:37

me, was the timing of the

27:39

sailing of those ships and trying

27:41

to dominate at least one of

27:43

the ports. You know, give me

27:45

one, please. Sail that ship prematurely

27:47

and watch your opponent's faces turn

27:50

to horror as they really needed

27:52

their block on that ship. No!

27:54

Why did you go to that,

27:56

or why did you go to

27:58

that port and block me? I

28:00

didn't need that. Frustrations abound, but

28:02

that's clearly part of the strategy

28:04

of this game, so get over

28:06

it or get off the boat.

28:09

Dig it up. Did you get

28:11

to... visit any pyramids? Please let

28:13

us know all about. We are

28:15

at which game first on all

28:17

of our social media. Our last

28:19

game up this week is M.

28:21

B. Nine that's spelled N. M.

28:23

B. R. And the number nine.

28:25

Oh, it's vowels. M. B. 9.

28:28

Designed by Peter Vichmann. Hope I

28:30

said that right? Peter Bankman? I

28:32

mean, yeah, ghostbusters. Published by Abacus

28:34

Spiele, 2017. Number of players one

28:36

to four, ages, eight and up,

28:38

playing time is 20 minutes. All

28:40

right, Mike Wood is in the

28:42

box. The

28:44

cover of the box shows a

28:47

kind of messy jumbled multi-colored Tetris-like

28:49

structure being stacked on top of

28:51

itself and it's surrounding the game

28:53

title on the cover of the

28:55

box When we swipe that away

28:57

we discover 80 number tiles and

28:59

20 number cards and that's it

29:01

man. That's what's in the box

29:03

9? 9? I'll give you the

29:05

very quick overview on how it

29:07

is played. Number 9? It's an

29:09

abstract tile stacking game where players

29:11

must stack numbers in order to

29:14

score points. Okay. The game includes

29:16

20 cards numbered 0 through 9,

29:18

twice, and 80 tiles numbered 0

29:20

to 9. So you have what?

29:22

4 of each of those. Each

29:24

number tile is composed of squares

29:26

in some arrangement. So it's like

29:28

this 8 bit. sort of cube

29:30

version of the numbers. If you

29:32

can picture that. Yeah, sure. When

29:34

the first card is revealed, each

29:36

player takes a number tile matching

29:39

the card and places it on

29:41

the table. Okay. With each new

29:43

card drawn after that, each player

29:45

takes the appropriate number tile. then

29:47

adds to the tiles that they

29:49

already have in play with each

29:51

player building their own arrangement of

29:53

tiles. The new tile must touch

29:55

at least one other tile on

29:57

the same level along one side

29:59

of a square. A tile can

30:01

also be placed on top of

30:03

two or more other tiles as

30:06

long as it's not part of

30:08

the new tile overhang. As long

30:10

as no part of the new

30:12

tile overhangs the tiles below it.

30:14

Right? So it has to be.

30:16

No dangling. No dangling off the

30:18

second floor. No dangling. No, you

30:20

can't do that. New tiles placed

30:22

on the same level must touch

30:24

at least one other tile while

30:26

also covering parts of at least

30:28

two tiles and again, not overhanging.

30:31

Once all the cards have been

30:33

drawn in the tiles placed, players

30:35

take turns calculating their score. A

30:37

tile on the first level, the

30:39

bottom level, is zero. You're gonna

30:41

score zero points, but a tile

30:43

on the first level above this

30:45

is worth as many points as

30:47

the number that is placed on

30:49

it So if you have a

30:51

nine on the second Basically floor

30:53

or level that's one times nine

30:55

nine nine if you had a

30:58

nine and a seven on that

31:00

floor that would be nine plus

31:02

seven sixteen times one is sixteen

31:04

But on the second level it's

31:06

worth twice Multiply it by by

31:08

two and if you get to

31:10

a third well then you're better

31:12

player than I am Because I

31:14

don't even think I got to

31:16

the second level. Whoever scores the

31:18

most points wins for everyone else

31:20

their numbers up. So, once again,

31:23

played it on board game arena.

31:25

And, okay, what do we think

31:27

about how this game looked? What

31:29

do you want to do? Mike.

31:31

Mike. Okay. So, I'll start by

31:33

saying it was on board game

31:35

arena. When Ed described the rules,

31:37

for some reason, my brain did

31:39

not pick up the fact that

31:41

we were stacking them on top

31:43

of each other. And the fact

31:45

that there was a flat? Yeah,

31:48

it's like a bird's eye, but

31:50

like. going up towards the sky.

31:52

So I was like, man, I'm

31:54

organizing them all nice, clipping them

31:56

in together, leaving no gaps on

31:58

the bottom level. And I'm like,

32:00

you're totally playing Tetris vertically. I

32:02

was playing a 2D game that

32:04

was supposed to be 3D. And

32:06

this game invites you, it puts

32:08

your brain into a Tetris mode

32:10

because it's that kind of block

32:12

shape to these numbers. Yeah, it's

32:15

kind of neat. All the numbers

32:17

are in that polyomino shapes and

32:19

some of those numbers are a

32:21

little weird. Yeah. They had to

32:23

make them different looking, you know,

32:25

like like a two is four

32:27

like four blocks up top, four

32:29

blocks offset underneath that and then

32:31

one block on the end. It's

32:33

like right to form the two.

32:35

And think of the spaces around

32:37

that block that you're trying to,

32:40

you know, get to fit neatly.

32:42

Yeah, when you're trying to stack

32:44

to the next level, like, let's

32:46

say you have a zero, you

32:48

can't put something over the hole

32:50

in the zero either. So, you

32:52

know, but you want to get

32:54

your low numbers as a base

32:56

and you want to make a

32:58

nice base so you can get

33:00

up to at least times two,

33:02

you know, on there somewhere. Yeah,

33:04

but the card flips are random.

33:07

It dictates what number you have

33:09

to play. Exactly. It's random, but

33:11

everybody gets the same flip. Go

33:13

in theory. We could all have

33:15

the same midjack layout, although we

33:17

were wildly diverse. What fun would

33:19

that be? For obvious reasons for

33:21

me. Yeah. It takes a little

33:23

getting used to. Yeah, yeah, it's

33:25

true. I mean, the example picture

33:27

we have here has somebody up

33:29

to level three with sevens and

33:32

eights on the third level there.

33:34

So they got a ton of

33:36

points. Yeah, that's tough. Yeah, I

33:38

know it can't be done. I

33:40

think I did get one up

33:42

on the third level at least

33:44

I had two on the third

33:46

level But they were low numbers.

33:48

I didn't have any good draws

33:50

at the end there. Yeah and

33:52

my problem was that I forgot

33:54

about the adjacency rule. Yeah, especially

33:56

on the second level as I

33:59

was building. I'm like, all right,

34:01

finally, I have a number on

34:03

the second level. I think I

34:05

put a seven up. And then

34:07

I'm like, oh, I have this

34:09

perfect spot where I can really

34:11

put another high number right over.

34:13

Wait, what do you mean I

34:15

can't? Why? The game's broken. Oh,

34:17

wait, what? It has to touch.

34:19

I forgot. Oh man. That was

34:21

a weird rule. Like you have

34:24

to be adjacent to another tile

34:26

on the level you're on. On

34:28

the level you're on and perfectly

34:30

overlapping. So if you made a

34:32

mistake and put a gap on

34:34

that level. Yeah. What you can

34:36

do. You can base that whole

34:38

area. Over that gap. And you're

34:40

like, oh no, how do I

34:42

do this? Yeah, exactly. And don't

34:44

forget the third rule about that,

34:46

about going up levels. You have

34:48

to, you have to straddle it

34:51

out over two different numbers. So

34:53

you can't take a nine and

34:55

put a nine right on top

34:57

of it in the exact same

34:59

arrangement. It prevents nine. It could

35:01

be good, right? Nope. No, yeah.

35:03

You have to straddle two different

35:05

tiles at a minimum. So you're,

35:07

so you've got these three components

35:09

basically that you have to. have

35:11

occurred in order to start stacking

35:13

on these next levels. And that's

35:16

a lot, to me it was

35:18

harder. And the shapes are weird.

35:20

The shapes are not easy to

35:22

work with. Like the seven is

35:24

like a T shape and then

35:26

another like little chunk on the

35:28

side of that. Like so you're

35:30

like, what the heck? And once

35:32

you put a one that has

35:34

a lot of little spaces in

35:36

it like that somewhere, it's really

35:38

hard to get something else on

35:40

top of that afterwards. Yeah. It

35:43

is a little weird. You kind

35:45

of have to, you're allowed to

35:47

rotate them around as much as

35:49

you like, but it is, it's

35:51

kind of like, kind of, it's

35:53

like a flip it, but you

35:55

can't. Yeah. No, can't flip it.

35:57

I mean, I'd love to put

35:59

an eight on top of another

36:01

eight directly on top of it,

36:03

but you can't. No, you can't

36:05

do it. You have to offset

36:08

it at least a little. Don't

36:10

cover the zero and follow the

36:12

rules and don't have fun. All

36:14

right, well, that's about all there

36:16

really is to this game. Not

36:18

a whole lot to it. Yeah,

36:20

I mean, once you get to

36:22

stack, and I mean, I don't

36:24

know what else I have to

36:26

say about it, I like the

36:28

symmetry and balance of things in

36:30

real life, so this game really.

36:32

burn my mind. Yeah, it kind

36:35

of tests your limits for that.

36:37

You have to make it asymmetrical

36:39

and weird. Like there's no way

36:41

that you can score without doing

36:43

it. Gosh. And your early decisions

36:45

in this game? Oh, man, they

36:47

could ruin the rest of your

36:49

game. And Mike knows from experience.

36:51

Oh yeah. All right, it's time

36:53

to dig up or Barry, number

36:55

nine. We're gonna start with Mike.

36:57

I was like mostly annoyed but

37:00

also simultaneously bored somehow. That's not

37:02

the best combination. No, it's a

37:04

bad combo. I don't know how

37:06

you'd prevent somebody from playing the

37:08

physical game version from actually cheating

37:10

to by accident just because there's

37:12

so many ways to accidentally put

37:14

a piece where it doesn't belong.

37:16

So I think the online version

37:18

at least helped you not to

37:20

cheat. I don't think everyone's going

37:22

to be as uneasy as I

37:24

was about this game, but for

37:27

me I have to bury it

37:29

just for my mental health. Ed.

37:31

The challenge of trying to stop

37:33

the polyamino numbers is interesting. You

37:35

know you want to get that

37:37

nine at the top if you

37:39

can, and it's not great when

37:41

it's the first number off the

37:43

deck. Yep, right. Yep. I know

37:45

I don't really think this is

37:47

a bad game, but after experiencing

37:49

it and I'm like... Yeah, no,

37:52

I don't know if I need

37:54

to do this again. Yeah. I

37:56

feel like that. I'll give it

37:58

a light. Yeah. Yeah, number nine

38:00

has a few basic rules, but

38:02

it was really something to build

38:04

it, something that you can be

38:06

proud of. Neat freaks are going

38:08

to have a hard time with

38:10

all the gaps. that are going

38:12

to occur in this game. And

38:14

those who do aim for perfection

38:17

are unlikely to be rewarded. Like

38:19

Ed, I'm just not sure how

38:21

much sustainability this game has after

38:23

a few plays. It's novel, it's

38:25

a little novel, tiny bit clever,

38:27

but I'll turn to some other

38:29

number games before this one. I

38:31

do. We'll bury it. Well, we

38:33

want to know how you stack

38:35

your polyaminos. Tell us all about

38:37

it. We are at which game

38:39

first on. Oh, social media. It

38:41

looks like that takes us to

38:44

the end of our episode. But

38:46

we look forward to hearing all

38:48

about your game exploring experience. If

38:50

you'd like more perks and contents

38:52

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38:54

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39:21

The numbers! They haunt me! You

39:23

gotta go to the Superstore 3,000

39:25

and the adventure 3,000 for the

39:27

haircut 3,000. Yeah. 3,000, 3,000.