OPENING

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I've got eight genuinely brilliant games that I doubt I'll ever play again. Let's talk about why great games can always land for everyone. Welcome everyone to the Just Play podcast. I'm your host, JP, and welcome to another episode where I talk about eight games that I doubt I'll ever play again. More on that one later. So yeah, uh, as you can tell, I'm I'm very kind of tantastic, um, probably since you saw me in the last episode. That's because I returned from holiday. Um, so yeah, I've I've just returned from uh Sham El Sheikh, which is in Egypt, and had two weeks of pretty much being horizontal with cocktails in my hand and uh yeah, just basically swimming and relaxing and all that good stuff with the family. So that's been very, very nice. But I have missed board gaming, I have missed um kind of doing a bit of potting. So it's good to be back. It feels like a uh, I don't know how many weeks. It feels probably like three or four weeks since I did a last episode. So yeah, good to be here.

PHASE A: PULL UP A CHAIR

SPEAKER_00 1:07

So let's just crack on, let's get into the first um segment of the show, which is pull up a chair. So, yeah, the first thing to kind of highlight is I'm I'm quite tired. I'm I'm knackered. I've been doing a hell of a lot of traveling. Um, as you probably saw in the just play reunion episode I did with Rob, um where I was out in Memphis, uh Tennessee. So I think for the past five weeks, I'm gonna kind of recount where I've been uh around the world. So uh started off obviously in the southwestern UK, and this is about five weeks ago. I went to Memphis, uh sorry, no, I went, flew to Nashville uh in Tennessee, drove to Memphis, and then from Memphis, uh we drove up to Indianapolis um and spent some time and working up there, and then drove back to Nashville, flew home. Um, we had about probably a day and a half at home, so I had like one night, and and then flew straight out to Sharm, uh Sham al-Sheikh, and did two weeks' holiday there. We flew back uh on Sunday, um, sorry, Saturday night, Sunday morning. Flights were delayed due to some shenanigans at Bristol Airport, which is uh I'm not gonna bore you with. And uh yeah, I literally had eight hours at home, including sleep, um, and had to go up um basically uh get on the train and get up to Stoke on Trent uh for work. So yeah, it's honestly my life has just been a bit crazy, just flying, traveling on trains, and I'm back home, I'm back in the studio, and you know what, I'm I'm here for it. So it's really, really good. Um, so as we always do and pull up a chair, I've got a question from the listener. Uh so Marton, um, for those of you you've seen Marton on my politic playthrough. Um, if you haven't watched that yet, I urge you to check that out. Politic is brilliant. Um, and he's asked, Do um I prefer to be the teacher at the table or be taught? Um, or does it depend on the person and group? Yeah, I I think the answer to this question kind of it depends. Um, I think generally I'm more comfortable in teaching. I've I'm the one kind of in the early um uh throws of the gaming group. I did pretty much the lion's share of the teaching because I was the one buying the games at the top at the time. So I uh I'm very comfortable in teaching the game. I like the process of it. And you know, if you caught the uh kind of punch to play episode, I think it was episode three, I kind of take you through my my process of of going through getting a game and kind of preparing it. So yeah, that's all comfortable territory for me. And I I really do enjoy the process of teaching people and and going through the whole thing. Um, but that being said, I think it will depend if the game is mine. Like if the game's mine, I'm teaching it. Of course I'm teaching it. I wouldn't expect anyone else to um teach it for me. Um, there are exceptions to that, but generally, if I'm buying a game, it's my responsibility. I'm gonna make sure that I know how to play it and teach others. Um, if I'm going around uh other people's houses, um I don't mind being taught. I I'm I think I'm I'm pretty good at at taking rules in. I know the bane of trying to teach a game and people asking questions constantly, and you just kind of need to get through the the process of it. And uh so I'm pretty good. But yeah, I'd say I'm more comfortable teaching than I'm being taught, but I'm happy to be taught at the same time. Um, but yeah, it does depend on personal groups. Some people are better at doing it than others, and in knowing that, knowing kind of how much investment you need to put up front before game night as well, that can help. So, yeah, hopefully uh that kind of answers the the question, Martin. But that's uh yeah, that's pretty much it. So let's get into the next segment, which is

PHASE B: JUST PLAYED

SPEAKER_00 4:52

just played. So, as normal, I have a couple of games that I want to to kind of talk about, and yeah, ones that have kind of been hitting my table um over the past uh month or

Arkwright: Anniversary Edition

SPEAKER_00 5:03

so. Um, so let's jump straight in. And the first one is actually Arkwright, but I'm talking specifically about Arkwright the Anniversary Edition, which came out um at Essen Spiel uh last year. And Arkright is an older game, as you can kind of see, it's been uh on BGG, it's actually kind of released around uh 2014, so it's been around uh quite a while and it is a heavy bugger. Um, you know, weight 4.59 is is is pretty sizable. Um, and it I've heard about this game. I think when I shut up and sit down, did a video on it way, way, way back. Um, I think that's back when Paul was still doing the videos. I miss Paul. Um and yeah, and I was always intrigued by this. I really quite like my heavy economic um kind of Euro style games, especially when they're set around like industrial revolution. I find that whole uh era of history kind of kind of fascinating and how you know uh mankind are kind of evolved and and pushed through this this revolution of industry and manufacturing and and things like that. I find it very interesting. So when games kind of play and operate in that space, yeah, I'm I I kind of take notice. And I've got another game uh I don't think I've actually talked about, and I'll probably talk about it on a future episode, which is uh Chicago 1875. Um, and that is a similar theme game, although plays very different to Arkright um in that respect. So, so yeah, let's let's dive into it. So, what is Arkwright? Arkwright is um, like I say, it's an economic game. You are managing a factory in the the late uh kind of 1700s, um, and you're basically trying to make lots of money and increase the share price um of your company or your factory um by the end of the game, and uh the player with the the highest share price is is the winner. Cash is useful, um, but cash is not a measure of your your victory condition. So you can end up with a lot of cash in hand, but if your share price is low, tough crap, you won't win. Um but obviously cash is going to be very important to do a lot of the things to grease the wheels in the game. Yeah, so for those that are watching on YouTube, I'm gonna show you a few kind of images as I talk. Um, but this anniversary edition uh is first thing I will say, it is a bloody table hog. Um, the the the boards that you get in this edition are huge. Um, we've played it uh two-player, I've played it solo uh as well. I've got a three-player uh coming up as well. And this thing just sprawls, man. It's like there's boards, there's a demand board, there's the main board, there's your factory board, and you know, everything's quite chonky in there. But you know, in terms of the uh the production on the anniversary edition, you know, you've got your dual-layer boards uh everywhere, and it's actually really, really nice. Um, yeah, everything's kind of where it should be. And I'll talk about the demand board, which for those watching is this kind of area down here uh where you've got a lot of sliders that go up and down, which kind of shows the the demand uh against your products that you're selling. But anyway, before I get into that, how it works is you're primarily focused around four um goods that that you could produce, or these four markets that you could produce in in this era, which is uh bread, cloves, cutlery, and lamps. They might signify wider uh commerce goods, but generally that's the pictures that you get. Bread being the lower value and the lamps being the higher value items. And the game starts in 1760 as a setup round, and you're effectively building your first factory, you're deciding which product line you're gonna go into. And again, in the anniversary edition, what I liked about it is that if you've never played the game before, it has a setup card and it says do this, and I really kind of like that because I had no idea what line to go into, what I should set the price to my factory or my goods on, and all that kind of stuff. It's quite overwhelming at the start for those that haven't kind of played it. So the card just says just follow this and then we'll get you playing. And I I really appreciate that. Um, but the game kind of goes from uh 1770 to 1810 in five rounds, and and effectively each round you've got four actions and they follow um the the board. So if I find a a picture of the factory, which is one here, if I just zoom in, there we go. Um the the the rounds kind of follow each kind of uh good, and and whether you've got a factory there or not is a different matter. So the first um action of the round will be focused around um producing bread, and the second one will be about producing clothes and then cutlery and then lamps. Now, your actions you do on that round doesn't mean that you only um kind of uh specific to that particular good, it just shows you that that's when they are producing, so you kind of need to time different things there. And effectively, what you're doing on your turn is you've got a bunch of action tiles, as you can see at the bottom um of the factory board. And the bottom of the factory board has uh a number of slots which kind of range from £2, £4, £6, and £8 and £10. So you've got these five slots at the bottom, and your action tiles just kind of slot into the bottom, and you pay that administrative fee to do that action. Now, the higher um slot you put it in, the more money you pay will typically mean that you'd have a more powerful action, which means you can get more out of it. Um, so what do you do on these actions? Well, you can build more factories, you can um kind of improve or level up your factories depending on the era you're in. So you can't level your factory to a level four if you're still in the first era because guess what? Time hasn't uh progressed and innovation hasn't quite happened in in the world for you to kind of leverage that. And so when you upgrade those factories, you're gonna get a better yield from your production of those goods, and it's gonna take um, yeah, basically, you you can get more uh out of it for less, which is always always good, um, and actually produces or increases the value of your products as well. Um, so you can do all that kind of stuff. You can also sell factories if you think other players are pricing you out of the market and you're just not getting anything out of it, you can just cut your losses, get rid of it, and diversify diversify somewhere else. But yeah, you can also build different factories into different product lines as well, because at the start of the game, you're gonna have one and you're gonna want to probably either go deep in one good or you want to kind of spread, spread your bets a little bit. But again, you're you're reacting to the other players. And and the the factories are kind of represented in in this edition by these little strips that kind of slot into your factory board, and it's very clear on what um what's going on because the workers that kind of sit in the slots will determine um you know how many workers you need in order to produce X amount of goods, and again, it's all very clear and and and cool. But you can do all that kind of stuff, you can um automate your factories, which means you you will probably end up pushing uh you know real people back to the uh the the labour, the job market, and put machines in their place, which guess what? That's what happened in the industrial revolution. Um, so you can do all that, you can start marketing um your products, so you can actually increase the demand, um, you can improve the quality of your your products again to help with the demand, um, and you can set your prices and all sorts of different stuff. See, effectively that's what you're doing. You're putting these action tiles under and doing stuff, and most of the time on your um uh tiles, you'll have two different bonus types. One I think is to set the price, so you can literally freely set your prices for these goods to whatever you want. Now, I can't remember the calculation because it gets a bit mathy. Um, but it's basically um your sales price um and your your factory uh plus any marketing and quality. So the factory costs, your marketing uh and your quality uh dice, which are the kind of sits at the top of the board, less your sales price equals the demand on your product. And it's a very clever way of um basically visualizing kind of what's going on. So if I um kind of jump into a different picture and kind of show this sliding uh section here, the demand board, you can very visually see which um player or yeah, basically which player has the the the most demand for their product. So you you and that becomes important in the production phase, which happens at the end of the action when everyone's had a turn. Um because when, for example, bread produces um the the amount um that that basically the the consumers want to buy um will pick from the one with the lowest slider first, so you can then fulfill um from your factory before you end up fulfilling from others. So it's a great way of visualizing the demand, and it kind of works like an Excel spreadsheet, I'm not gonna lie, which I don't mind. Um, and you can at a glance kind of tell where you are in the pecking order, and if you're quite high up here um and there's not enough to go around, you're not selling anything. And guess what? You've got a uh a warehouse full of stock that you can't sell, which is not good for anyone, those who know business. So, so yeah, and you've always got this kind of neutral um the importer as well that will compete with you, so it's not just other players, you have to compete with um like the you know the economy and what's going on. And this bit I I love how this kind of dynamically changes and shifts each round and and does all that kind of stuff. Um, the other thing you do on the action tile is you can get more tiles. So the other bonus is that you can get more action tiles, which kind of sit around this area here for those watching, but generally they're more powerful versions than what you have at the start, and they really really helped you just to kind of give you a bit more um you know grease in the wheels. Um, but also you've got development tiles, which are these other ones that kind of sit on the right side of the main board, and they uh slot into your your factory. And if I go back here, you can slot into the factory at the top, so there's little indents at the top of each of those, and it can slot in, and it gives that factory um uh a kind of a rule-breaking thing. Um, so it might be like you you don't have to pay wages on most of the workers that are there, or you do something, you know, they're really good, and you're gonna want them um to really bend the kind of rules in your favour. But look, I could wax lyrical about uh Arcright, and I really enjoyed this. Like um when I played the demo uh at Essen uh last year, we had a bit of a crap demo, I'm not gonna lie, and I could see the the potential in the game, it's just it wasn't kind of shown off at the time, and it's kind of sat with me for I don't know, it must have been months and months and months because I picked this up at the UK Games Expo, which I think I mentioned on on that episode with uh Mr. Mark Monk. And and yeah, and and really happy I've picked this up because it it's it's very meaty, and I like my heavy games, and it ticks that that box. If you like your heavy games and you like economic games and you're trying to work out you know a bit of maths and how you can kind of have a an economic war with with your opponents, then this will be right over the street. But if if the theme does nothing for you and you're not interested in this, you'll probably hate this, to be honest. Or if you find that this might be uh a bit too heavy for your taste if you don't tend to play uh heavier games. Um, and I think I'm trying to think of like criticisms around around the game itself. I think time, I mean it's difficult to kind of know the playtime it took. Um, me and Stuart, we played a two-player around two and a half, three hours on our first play, and probably get that down. But I imagine a four-player of this would take a significant amount of time, a good four-hour stint, and that's quite a long time to be uh playing the game. And um, but yeah, uh I'm intrigued to see how it plays um, you know, at a three-player. I'm intrigued to see how it plays um after more plays, just to see how the variability comes in because there are events that um are kind of put into the game to help kind of shift different expectations and what's going on, so it will play differently um each time. Um, but yeah, really liked it. Um it's making me want to play uh Chicago 1875 a bit more as well. So maybe I'll uh I'll I'll play that one again and do a bit of a uh comparison. So that is uh Arkright.

Rebirth

SPEAKER_00 17:30

So the next game on just played is Rebirth. So Rebirth is completely on the opposite end of the spectrum of Arkwright in terms of its weight because it's really on the lower side, 1.98. Um, and this is probably my favorite light game um that I've played. Uh so this is designed by Ryan Konitzia, uh, it's a tile-laying game, and this came out a few years ago and it's published by Mighty Boards. Um, and effectively, I'll just jump into a picture. Um, you have got two maps in the game. You've got Scotland and you've got Ireland, which is on the kind of double-sided board. You've got a load of hexagons all over the place, and you've got a bunch of tiles and castles, and away you go, you're you're playing the game. But really, thematically, I think you're kind of in the fallout of uh the fall of civilization, and back when um everything's kind of becoming kind of lush and green, and uh humanity is is once kind of thriving after that kind of event. But the theme means nothing, ignore it, it doesn't really matter. Um, but really what you're doing is kind of like a little area control game with placing tiles on the board, trying to secure um castles, which are gonna score you the biggest points at the end of the game, and uh fulfilling objectives and all sorts of stuff. So, yeah, two the two maps work differently in that uh they they twist some of the rules up, which I quite like. So Scotland plays you know differently to Ireland, and yeah, it's such a simple game to play. Like I can play this with my family, and and everybody enjoys it and has a has a great time with it, and it does not outstay its welcome. You can smash a game of rebirth in under an hour, even with you know, three or four um kind of players. So, what do you do? So you have a bag, you've got a full of tiles, and on the tiles, you've got three different tile types. You've got food farms, energy farms, and settlements, and settlements come in uh denominations of like uh single house to two house to three house, and I think four, can't remember. And uh basically you'll pull uh a tile out of the bag, and everyone will have this at the start of the game, and on your turn, you place it down on the map. That's it. But now there are some restrictions on that. So on the map, you'll notice that there are some like food symbols or energy lightning bolt symbols. Um, and you know, that's basically saying only a food farm can go there, or only an energy farm can go there. And now, if you're placing those, um, you basically place the tile and you score a VP for every farm of that type that is adjacent to it. So when the first one goes down, you get one point, the second one goes down next to it, you get two, and then three, and so on and so forth. Now, everyone knows that, so they're gonna start blocking you off and and and start to to basically stop you from from doing that. But of course, they want to do their own agenda as well. Um, you've got cathedrals. Now, this is Scotland, I'm I'm talking about primarily. You've got cathedrals where if you place next to a cathedral, you put your little cathedral um piece on there, and then you draw an objective card. An objective card will say if you've got the longest food food farm uh contiguous line, then you get five VPs, or if you have the most coastal um uh kind of dominance, you get X VPs, or if you have the most cathedrals, you get this. And and it gives you some direction um on where you're going. So you kind of want to get those early just so you know what you're doing. And then similarly, you've got um castles. If you place next to a castle, you put your castle down. Now, if someone places more tiles than you, then they take your castle away and they put theirs down. Now there's some tie-breaking rules in there as well. Um, and so there's this big tug of war for kind of dominations on castles, and then you've got settlements, which um your settlement pieces can only go in there, and that again has a like a little mini area control within it, and you can score once they are uh completely filled up. That's pretty much the rules of it. Um, and when you finish your turn, you draw your tile out of the bag, so you're looking at it, and everyone else is taking their turn. So when it comes to your turn, all you're doing is putting the tile down, and that makes the game zip round, it is so quick. Um, I I just love the fact that you you draw your tile, you're thinking, Oh, I'm gonna put that there or put that there. Oh, it's my turn, and off you go. And that's just fantastic from a game. There's pretty much very little downtime, and it just keeps flowing and flowing until your tiles run out, and then you score. Uh you do all the end game. Game scoring. That is the game. Now, Island on the other side adds some powers. So when you do your cathedral action, you flip tokens over and then you get a power, you could then go again, or you can do other things. So it adds a little bit more crunch. Um, but generally the the nuts and bolts of the game is exactly the same. Um, now my only criticism of the game, it's nothing you know, pretty much uh wrong with the game at all, is is personally, I just want more maps. You know, I want one in England or in Wales or in the southwest where I'm from. I'd love to see more maps and variation uh for rebirth because it's crying out uh for that for sure. It's very modular in that respect that you could you could bust that out. And I believe they're doing uh a rebirth too, um, which I'm hoping will kind of add more uh variety in the maps. But yeah, it's a fantastic game you can play with your family, light rule set, but still enough in their decision space. So basically, where do I place this tar? But yeah, I recommend rebirth a lot. If you've not tried it, check it out. So there we

PHASE C: CENTRE OF THE TABLE

SPEAKER_00 23:05

go. So let's jump back into uh the main um kind of topic of of the uh the episode, which is our uh center of the table segment. And I wanted to kind of talk about games or eight specific games that are fantastic, and I recognize that they are really good and they are brilliant games, but for whatever reason, I doubt I'll ever play them again, which is a weird one, right? Because you think, well, JP, you would naturally want to play the best games, right? Surely, and you're right, of course I do, of course I want to play the best games, and you know, some of these games are ranked like massively high on on the BGG listing, but hey, we're all different, and some of these opinions that I've got will be unpopular, and it is the way it is, like you know, all built different, aren't we? And we all enjoy different things, but yeah, for whatever reason, I don't know. I just they just didn't hit right with me, and that's the way it is, guys. So yeah, so I'm gonna go through them uh one by one. They're not in any particular order, I'm not ranked one that I hate the most because I don't hate any of these games. Um, I you know, and I said I'll never play them again. It's not like I'm actively trying to avoid them, I think it's um just given a choice, I would play something else, uh, or something has kind of replaced it for me. Uh so yeah, so I think I thought it'd be quite fun to kind of go through that. So you can get in the comments and tell me how wrong I am, which let's face it, uh probably am.

Ark Nova

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Um, so the first one on the list is uh a big one. So two good friends of mine absolutely love this game, and and they're in my gaming group, so they are the Curlies. If you're listening, Curlies, hello. Um Curly's also on the Who's Turn podcast, so for those that have listened previously, you know exactly who they are. Um and it is Arknova. So yeah, Arknova is a brilliant game. I used to own Arknova, and I think I actually introduced Arknova to the Curlies uh as well back in the day. And Arknova is is basically a zoo-themed uh game where you you're kind of using your your action cards and they kind of work on a conveyor belt system, much like um uh Civilization New Dawn from Fantasy Flight, same system, and you'll you'll kind of trigger the action, the higher up it is and the more power it has, the more it's gonna do for you, and then it goes down to level one and shun everything up. And it's got a kind of unique scoring mechanism, which not many people like, I think. It doesn't ever bother me, but uh a lot of people don't like where you have your conservation marker and your appeal, and when they meet, that triggers the end of the game. So you're kind of working two sides of the coin in order to kind of meet them in the middle. Um, now I can't tell you why I wouldn't play this game. I actually do like it, it's got a good expansion with the marine worlds. Um, I just think I'm done with it. I just think genuinely I've played enough games of Art and Over to you know, I'm fine if I never play another game of it. I'm fine. Um, because I'd rather probably just play something else. Um, so yeah, I just I think the appeal of the game has just waned for me and hasn't really wanted to pull me in, uh, you know, and ever since I kind of sold my copy, because you know, good friends of mine own it, so I ever need to access it, I can just get a game there. But it hasn't ever happened for whatever reason. Uh so yeah, that's the first one. Sorry, sorry, Curlies. Um, I know you're probably swearing at me and calling me names, but meh. Um

Brass Birmingham

SPEAKER_00 26:35

the second one, number two, is Brass Birmingham, which is you know top-rated game of BGG. I actually like brass, I respect the freaking hell out of brass, and every game I have had of brass, I've really enjoyed. So why wouldn't you play it again? Well, the answer to that is is a game called Nucleum. And Nucleum, for me, I just think I'd rather play Nucleum, even though I know they're not exactly the same, they're not completely the exactly the same, they they are different, but they've got similar-esque themes of laying train tracks and and uh basically building up kind of your your engine to get more and more and more things uh done. And I just think mechanically, Nucleum being a David Tursey design, which you know one of my favourite designers, just kind of gets in there in my brain, it tickles the brain in the right way for me. Um, whereas brass, I've always had a great time, but nucleum just trumps it. So, yeah, there we go. Um, I've not played uh played brass Lancashire. Um and obviously there's the Pittsburgh version that's coming, so maybe I'd I'd probably try those two. Um, but most people I've spoken to prefer the Birmingham edition. But Nucleum is all the way for me. Sorry about that.

Spirit Island

SPEAKER_00 27:50

Number three is uh Spirit Island. So again, Spirit Island I've played twice, and it has been with probably three or four people, and my my memories of the game was pretty much a lot of downtime. Um, and maybe I need to play this solo, maybe I need to give Spirit Island solo a fair shake because a lot of people who play it do play it solo, but I've never done that. But yeah, I I don't know what it is about it. I think it's either the look of it or um yeah, just the way that it plays. It's just I don't know, just something about it. Just it didn't kind of stick. I I was expected to get really excited about Spirit Island and and you know, just wanted to play it more and more, and and yeah, and when I played it, I was kind of like, Yeah, I'll play it again. I played it again, and I was like, Yeah, and that was it. I I can't even explain to you why I feel that way about it, but yeah, just I think it's probably because you have to kind of think ahead on it, maybe maybe I'm a more tactical player than I'm a strategic player. Um, and maybe it's just because it just took a while and I don't know, just it didn't sing with me. And again, if I don't play it again, I'm alright with it. Um, but I I know people play it a lot, and I know um that it's a well-respected game, and I I respect the hell out of it because it is is doing something unique. So you go,

Clank!

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Spirit Island. So the fourth one is Clank, and that can be any edition of Clank. Um, I used to own the the base Clank and many of its expansions. Used to play with the family a fair while about five years ago. We had a blast with it. We had a great time with Clank, and and then I think it got to a point where I'm just saturated with it. And then, you know, again, friends of mine have got the Clank Catacombs edition, which I still probably think is the best version of the game because it gives you variety um in the map uh layouts without you having to buy loads of expansions to make uh basically give you that variety. Um, but ultimately it's still clank, and I think, yeah, I'm just kind of done with it. There's a common theme here, I think I'm kind of done with with some of these, but you get to a point where you just saturated. I think you played the game to a level where it's just either not as fun for you anymore, um, or you just don't get enough out of it for the time that you're putting into it, and that's what I get with Clank. Like I I just nah, I can I could probably play something else, and I just generally not interested in in what it's doing anymore, which is a shame because it was fun and and it stopped.

Eclipse: Second Dawn

SPEAKER_00 30:33

Next one is Eclipse Second Dawn, and I suppose the first first uh dawn. Now I used to own Eclipse. Um I what was one of my favourite games, Eclipse. So this one surprised me. This one came out of out of nowhere, really. Um, because having played the game a lot of times, probably 20 plus, must be in the 30s by now. Um I love the customization in Eclipse. I love the blueprints of the ships that you can customize to either make them glass cannons or you can make them as really tanky, beefy, beefy things. And I love all that. I love getting the ship parts and doing all that bit. Well, what I found, having played it over and over and over and over again, uh, is it's broken into eight rounds, and my story of eclipse from where you start and where you end was pretty much the same. It feels it's not on rails, and I know it's not on rails, but you kind of follow that path to a point where I'm like, it's the same sort of thing that's happening. And I think the more I played, the less interested I got with that story. So you start the game, you've got your your kind of sector, you're obviously going to explore, explore, explore just to try and open up the world. So round one is already kind of predetermined in that way for me. Um, depending on your faction or alien race, that obviously leads into different things. And you're gonna go and do that. You're probably gonna want to find find an ancient to duff up to get better and powered up. And again, if you fight the ancients too early, you're gonna get hurt a lot, you're gonna get put behind the curve, and you'll likely lose the game. Um, because it's difficult to kind of catch up. And ultimately it becomes this kind of thing where everyone gets to round seven or eight, and the space egg that's kind of sits in the middle, um, or the galactic defense system, whatever it's called, everyone has a fight in there, yay. And again, it's just it's like reading the same book over and over and over again with some variability in in the way that the ships work. And I just I found I've just got to the kind of end of of life with the game and and uh yeah, pretty much wanted to kind of move it on, really, which is a shame. Um, a lot of people compare Eclipse to Twilight Imperium, they're nothing alike, they're they're completely nothing alike. There's very little politicking in Eclipse, uh, whereas TI has politicking in in spades, um, although TI takes uh a lifetime to play sometimes as well. So it is what it is, but yeah, it feels like it's on rails, even though I know the game isn't. But for me, it feels like it's the same story,

Barrage

SPEAKER_00 33:10

right? Number six, uh getting towards the the kind of end of the the list and barrage. It is barrage now. Barrage again, Nucleum is kind of taken the the barrage-esque uh bits that I did like and and put it into a game that I can kind of play and enjoy. Um but barrage is the only game that's properly tilted me. Um and I was at uh Grigcon, can't remember which one, probably four or five, and playing a game of barrage, and I don't know, for whatever reason, I I'm pretty chilled when I play games. I you know, if anyone plays games with me, I like to have a bit of a laugh. The banter's there, it's flowing, and I'm pretty chilled, and I'm pretty I don't really mind. Like if I win, brilliant. Of course I'm elated and and it's great. But if I lose, I don't care that much about it, you know. I'm not gonna kind of sulk. But for something in this game was pissing me off. And I just felt like whatever I did, I just got kind of gazumped. Or, you know, for those that don't know Barrage, you're you're kind of building these uh electrohydro or hydroelectric uh dams to capture the the water flow and basically siphon the power into to different areas and turbines so you can generate powerful fill contracts and all that kind of stuff. And if you're not careful, then other players can literally just take that supply and reroute it to other places, and you're left with bugger all and and there can basically be a lot of uh not feel-good moments in that game, and it just kept happening and happening and happening to the point where you're like, what is even the point of this game? And normally I'm alright with with toothy games. Um, I like a bit of uh you know, bit of bit of kind of player interaction, whether it's negative or positive, but this just pissed me off, and uh yeah, I needed to calm myself down about it, if I'm being honest, and uh I've never played it since. And I think then Nucleum came out, and it's kind of like, well, it's got barrage-esque elements in it, so why would I even play it again? So yeah, so unfortunately, barrage is on is on that list, but I do recognise it's a good game, I do, and I've had some great games with it, so it's just one of those. Um

Vantage

SPEAKER_00 35:20

number seven, uh Vantage uh by Stonemeyer. Now, I played Vantage and not for me, it's just a flat out not for me. I uh I respect what that game is doing, and when you look at the the content that's in that game, Christ, there's there's so much content, and effectively it's kind of like a choose your own adventure where you're exploring a map um where you the map isn't laid out as such, you've just got a card in front of you, and when you want to go north, you replace that card with the one that is telling you to. And if you're playing with other players, they've got their cards, you can't see where they are in the relation to where you are, and you're kind of going on your own individual journey. The fact this is co-op, I don't think it's a co-op game, I think it's a solo game personally. I'm not quite sure why you'd want to play this with a large player count. Um, but I just found myself wandering around. Um, I I got into a lot of trouble quite quick, I died quite quick. Um, and I don't know, I I felt like the world was very shallow and wide. That's the way I like to explain it. So you can go to vast different places and experience different things, but the depth in those that kind of interaction or areas was very limited. Now, if I compare that to Earthborne Rangers, where the world is a lot smaller, but there's a hell of a lot more depth going on in that world and what you do and how you explore and um uh in that kind of sandbox world. And for me, I would rather have that uh richer story in a smaller world than uh like a bigger world with with not much of a story or a bit of a random piece together story. So, yeah, Vantage wasn't for me. Um, respect it though. Um, really respect what that game is doing, and I'm sure lots of lots of people enjoy it. And again, Rob, who was on the show uh recently, he he really enjoys Vantage and think a little bit disappointed. I was like, Yeah, about it, but not every game can hit right.

Mage Knight

SPEAKER_00 37:21

And then I get to my last one. I've saved the best to last, and and I think I need to still give this a good fair shake. Um, when I say the name of this game, you're all gonna shout at um your devices or uh you're when you're watching this, and it's almost like I can't look at you saying it, but it is uh mage night. I know, I know, mage night, right? Um, I played this um uh Curly. I think Curly's got a copy of it in our gaming group, and yeah, Mage Knight. I wanted to love this game, I really wanted to love this game, and I kind of came away going, yeah, I'm alright with it. That's just generally how I feel. And you know, Mage Knight is deterministic, it's got like void fall elements where it's deterministic. You're you're trying to kind of traverse around this adventure and and you know, fight monsters and and level up and and get better and better and better. I just I don't know what it is. I I I think I might be broken, guys. I think maybe what it is, but I just kind of came away going, yeah, I'm alright if I don't play that again. It might be that the first play experience just took too long, and maybe I kind of lost interest uh as the game went on. I think we played it for like five or six hours. Um, and again, it was a learning game, there's lots of rule book referencing, and uh, do we play in this right? Does that make sense? Is that how it works? Um, but a lot of people who play Mage Knight play it solo, and maybe that's again where it's at. It's a bit like Spirit Island, maybe just try it solo. Um, but again, I just don't know if I want to. Do you know what I mean? Like I just feel like maybe I I just play something else. There are just so many games out there, you know. Go on BGG, there's there's a hundred thousand plus games, and when one just doesn't quite hit the mark, why why am I trying to force a square peg into a round hole? Maybe that's what it is. But the kind of the thing that's also been kind of sitting in my mind is uh Kingdom Come Deliverance, which is uh a new game by Czech Games edition designed by um uh Vlader, who designed uh Mage Knight, as well as Thomas Um Hollock, who designed SETI. Uh they've done a board game implementation of Kingdom Come um Deliverance, and it's basically a medieval romp for four days and doing little mini quests and fighting and hunting and and all sorts. And I don't know what it is about that, but that one's intriguing me and the way that game works, and I don't know how it compares to Mage Knight. There's not loads of information at this time of recording around Kingdom Comes, a few videos and things, but there were no proper playthroughs then to of how the game works, and yeah, but there's something about that I'm really intrigued to learn and look and and find out more about that game, and maybe that's for me. Maybe I'm gonna try it at S and hopefully you can get a hands-on a copy and yeah, see how that goes. But there we go, there's eight games I'll likely not play again. I mean, never say never, but to be honest, in the world where there's so many board games in the world, like it's probably not gonna happen, right? I'm gonna go and play the stuff I absolutely love and you should too. And if you love those games, awesome, respect you because they are fantastic games, and that's what I'm saying. I'm not poo-pooing the games that just didn't hit right for me for whatever reason. So there we go.

PHASE D: WHAT'S HOT, WHAT'S NOT

SPEAKER_00 40:50

So let's jump over to the next segment, which is uh what's hot and what's not, and let's jump into Board Game Geeks uh hotness and see what's in the uh the top five. So effectively, number one is Whisperwood. Whisperwood is a cardboard alchemy game. I played a scripted demo of this at the UK Games Expo, and uh yeah, I I don't know what to to kind of say about this. The scripted demo was fine, it gave me a little taste of what's going on. It's a bag build, uh much like Orlean, um, where you are these druids in the forest, and there's corruption in the forest that you're trying to cleanse, and effectively trying to return the animals to to the world and and make sure everyone has a lovely, lush, green life. Um, other than that, I haven't really played it, so it's really difficult to see whether this is for me. The theme is not for me, like generally the theme doesn't do anything for me because it's about druids and stuff like that, and it's just yeah, whatever. But I'd like to to get more information on Whisperwoods because Mark Monk from Ninja Geek Games, good friend of mine, has uh basically got an early copy of this and he's been doing some coverage for for cardboard alchemy, and I need to tap him up on what he thinks and how he's kind of uh experienced the game now he's played it properly and and gone through the process. But yeah, happily want to try this. Um, you know, theme aside, mechanically, I do like bag building and um yeah, to kind of see it put into a you know a chonky euro, and because it's cardboard alchemy, you just know the production's gonna be pretty good. If it's anything like um Andromeda's edge, we're we're we're in for a good time. And the reason why it's number one, I think it's just here it's uh crowdfunding. So there we go. That's whisperwood. So yeah, I kind of agree, um, but it's not one I'm rushing to. Um the crew journey of the journey to the ends of the earth. So yeah, I I only heard about this, I think it was last week. So I used to own a copy of the original of the crew, and then they had the deep sea um version, which I think was better. Now, lots of people have said that this is the version that trumps both of them. I don't know anything about it. All I know is a trick-taking game, uh cooperative trick-taking card game. That's pretty much it, where you have limited communication and away you go. But to be honest, you know, I've got a a variety of those kind of games. And uh, whilst it's not trick-taking per se eternal decks as a cooperative um game is just fantastic. So it kind of that's fulfilling the the need for me. Wildscape. Don't know what this is. Um let's have a look. Um jumping into wildscape resource. I'll restore natural habitats and compete for the most thriving animal ecosystem. Yeah, it kind of looks like a yeah, like an animal y sort of mini euro game, really. Uh, heard nothing about this, so I can't really tell you what this is about or what my opinion is of it. But hey, must be people talking about it if it's in number three. So yeah, I'll I'll check that one out. If you do know more about it, let me know. Should I check that one out? Should I dive deep into it? Drillers number four, Check Games Edition. I know of drillers. Um Was being um kind of demoed at UK Games Expo, and I think it was a Gen Con release. So I think you can literally get your hands on this right now. So there's a lot of people buying uh their copies of drillism and playing it. I'm I'm intrigued by this one. I'm actually probably going to get um my proper plays of this set Essen this year when I go. Um, but effectively you're kind of the um uh set in the future, and you've kind of got these augmented drilling machines uh fashioned out of boats and uh trams and and planes and things like that, and you've got this kind of board where you're you're deck building, but you're trying to go down into the mines, drill for gems, come back up, use those gems, sell, improve your deck, get better and better, upgrade yourself into the point where the game ends. So I think it's got kind of a simple gameplay loop with multi-use cards and things like that. But I'm intrigued to play it. And if it's kind of hits that 90-minute sweet spot, which I think it will, um, then this could be a nice midway game that doesn't take too long, and yeah, I'm intrigued by that. Number five, I'm really pleased this has hit the hotness. I am really pleased, and this is hell of a deal, and hell of a deal I have backed. So hell of a deal is a cooperative Texas Hold'em poker game where you don't play with money, you play with souls. So you're effectively playing against the devil, um, and it's got um this kind of cuphead uh art style to it. So if you you for those that have played Cuphead, you'll know it's that kind of early 1900s um kind of cartoon style and it's been put into this game and it looks fantastic. But effectively you're working together to try and cheat and beat the devil at poker because guess what? He's gonna be cheating like hell to take the souls away from you so that you stay in in hell uh forever. I love the theme of it. I love the fact that you um, you know, in Texas Hold'em, you've got a couple of cards in your hand and you have the river, um, but you also have another card that's up your sleeve, which is kind of in your hand but kind of bent sideways, and that's up your sleeve, so you can um use it. And there are ways that you can pass cards between each other and do all those kind of things, and yeah, and looking forward to to trying that out. And in the future, as a bit of a sneak, uh sneaky peek. I'm gonna do an episode around uh kind of poker style games because I'm kind of I'm I'm getting into them. I kind of like taking the concept of poker and then twisting it up into different areas. So it's something I'd I'd like to do an episode on in the future. So if that sounds cool, then then you're in the right space. So that's uh what's hot, what's not. So yeah, good to see some different games on on the list. And

PHASE E: JUST ABOUT TO PLAY

SPEAKER_00 46:38

uh yeah, let's jump into the uh uh next segment, which is just about to play. Now, this one I don't really have a specific uh game in mind. Now I do, I'm lying. Because I've been away traveling for the past five weeks, I've just not had time to game. So I've actually missed board gaming. Uh like really, like getting people around my table and playing the game. I've missed it like mad. Um, so my copy of Star Trek Captain's Chair to Boldly Go, the second wave of content, has arrived in the JP household and and it literally still in the box, man. I wanted to get this podcast recorded first, but I'm gonna be unboxing that, sorting that out, and hopefully getting some games of that in the upcoming weeks. Uh, likely solo because I tend to play Captain's Chair solo, it's my probably a number one solo game. Um, and I haven't played some of those captains for a while since I um yeah did some playtesting on it. And and I managed, this is a little cool moment. I didn't even know this was gonna happen, guys. But um, I managed to get my my name in the rule book as playtesting, and I was like, what? Uh and I haven't I I feel a bit weird about it, I'm not gonna lie, because there are other playtesters, there's other names in that book who I know who have play tested the game to death and have played lots and lots and lots, put lots of hours in. And you know, I've helped out a little bit, honestly, just a little bit, because I don't have the time. I do the podcast and my work is what it is. I don't have the time to to fully play test. And to get to find out they put my name in the rule, but I was such a like, oh, you didn't honestly have to do that, and you know, in my my contribution, the comparison to all this is minuscule. So um, for those that did, you're awesome. I love you for it. It's it's fantastic. So yeah, I'm looking forward to playing that, and I'm catching up with uh friend this weekend. We're gonna play some games. I don't know what though, and it's his birthday, so I'm just gonna play what he wants to play and catch up and have a good time. So I'm absolutely looking

PHASE F: THE LAST PLAY

SPEAKER_00 48:36

forward to that. And there we go. So we are now at the end of the episode, and this is the last play. And again, as always, I just want to say thank you, thank you so much for for those that support the show, those who comment uh in YouTube and those that comment on the socials. I love it. Please continue to do it. It really makes me just feel so happy that you know uh you guys are interacting and um asking those questions and and keep keeping them coming. Um, I really appreciate support. I mean, if you enjoyed the show, please share. Um, I want to grow this show uh on YouTube, I want to grow it uh on the podcast platform. So please please share over others in your gaming group if you think they would enjoy it. Um and yeah, just for those that are kind of supporting financially as well on coffee, you are amazing. Um, honestly, uh it's great to kind of see uh that that support coming through because podcasts aren't free, they they cost money to to kind of run and produce and host and all those kind of things, and it all honestly, it really helps. So if you want to uh kind of support the show, please please find all the details in the show notes below. But all that's left to say from my point of view is you only grow old when you stop playing. Take care, everyone.