OPENING

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I've played a lot of solo card games, mainly because it's a bit of a chore to get people around your house and play games, but these five, these are the absolute best. Welcome to the Just Play podcast. I'm your host, as always, JP, and it's great to have you back here for episode seven, where I talk about my top solo card games of all time, but more

PHASE A: PULL UP A CHAIR

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about that later. So the first segment, as always, is pull up a chair. So welcome in, get comfy, get relaxed. And uh, as always, I've got a listener's question. So uh Andy from YouTube commented, um, how many thousands of games do I have in my collection? And is my collection mostly games from the last 10 years, i.e. 2016 plus, or are they older? Great question. Um, I don't actually have that many games in my collection. I think I've just counted on my uh Board Game Geek uh collection page, and I have around 200, and that includes expansions of things around. So I think core games, probably 100 and 120 or something like that. So I have a quite a modest collection, um, to be fair, and I I typically would uh cycle uh a lot of the games around every year. So I tend to do an annual cull, um, usually before GridCon, because GridCon has a uh a good bring and buy uh system. So for those that don't know, GridCon is the gaming rules convention in Devon, and I'm fortunate enough to uh go as I'm a Patreon supporter, so and uh I typically get tickets, uh not always, but I typically get tickets and also help Paul out uh with some of the demos at the event as well. But generally, that is my way of offloading uh games into the Bring and Buy, and I tend to be quite successful at that, um, which is always nice. And some of them you end up selling before, but anyway, I'm going off on the tangent. So, yeah, typically my collection is around kind of 100, 200, depending on if you count uh expansions. And are they mostly games from the last 10 years? Yes. Um, I actually was intrigued by this because I wondered how many games I had that were in the the kind of pre-2016 era. I mean, if you kind of remember back from my kind of early episodes, I uh got reintroduced into the hobby around 2015, 2016-ish. So basically, you know, Terraforming Mars was brand new, I think, when I was just starting to get going. So, yeah, a lot of my games are gonna be procured after that point. But I do have some oldies in there, and I thought I'd list some of these off. Mainly they're Uve Rosenberg games. I don't know why, but they are. So I have uh Agricola, um, Feast Rodin, I think came out in 2016. Um, I have Aura Labora and Patchwork. Those are a few uh games that came out kind of pre. Um, I do have Hive, which is a nice little uh insect chess uh kind of pocket game that we can play. Typically take that on holiday, play that with my son. Um, and Game of Thrones 2nd edition, which is 2011. Um, so typically, like those are the games that I have, but most of them are in the new kind of era, um, which is probably not that surprising. But yeah, so thank you for your question, Andy. Really appreciate that. If you've got any more questions, you know what to do. Just comment below on the YouTube channel or get us hold of us on the socials or join our Discord server and um basically come in and ask the questions there. Uh I love them. Let's keep them going because that's what we're here for. So there we go. So that is

PHASE B: JUST PLAYED

SPEAKER_00 3:31

pull up a chair. So let's move to the next segment, which is just played. And this is where I talk about games that have been hitting my table, or in this case, hitting a uh kind of table away from home. So there's a bit of a theme today.

Rolling Realms Redux

SPEAKER_00 3:44

So, first up on the list is a game by Stone My Games, and I have to kind of be completely open and transparent. Stone My Games have uh given me uh a copy of this particular game to check out. Um, but as you know, those who follow me, I'm gonna give you my honest thoughts uh about what I think about the game, but I need to be transparent about that. That I did get this copy for free. Um, but also for for me and Stonemai games, like they can be a bit hit and miss for me. Um, I prefer a lot of Stonemaier games from the past, um, you know, things like Sive and Viticulture and uh yeah, those kind of games. And anything that's kind of newer, I tend not to and enjoy as much, but I like to check them out, I like to see where where games are going and all that kind of stuff. So, yeah. So let's jump over and find out what it is. So this is Rolling Realms Redux, um, which has come out in 2024. But actually, Rolling Realms is an older game that came out during the the pandemic and COVID times in 2020. So Jamie Stegmeier um actually produced this Rolling White game as a way of getting people to kind of engage with games during that whole isolation period where most people are at home uh wondering what the hell was going to happen to the whole world. And I remember this time vividly, and I remember the videos that Jamie did where he will basically share this kind of print and play where you'd print uh sheet off. And I think at the time the the games that were um basically uh kind of part of Rolling Realms were actually variations of uh his actual games from Stonemai Games, so you had Cybe and Viticulture and things like that, and and you effectively he got lots of people playing uh all at home whilst he's on his live stream, and that was a great fun. That's my kind of first introduction to the to the game. And but anyway, what is it? What is Rolling Realms? Well, it is as I said, it's a roll and right game, and each realm is kind of representative by a game, and now these are sometimes uh very real games, uh either in the Stonemire collection or actually in the board gaming uh collection in general. So I think uh Stonemire Games is linked out to different publishers to get the rights to use their game, and uh yeah, there are now I can't remember how there's there's loads. I think it's like 80 plus realms that you can get, but in this box alone you get 12. And within here, from memory, you've got like the the guild of merchant explorers, you've got Atawa, which is obviously a Uve Rosenberg game, you've got um, yeah, different bits and bobs. You've got poker, you've got um, oh god, is it a legacy of you? There's there's different kind of variations of games in there, and each realm is a card, and on the card effectively is like a mini-game. And what you do is that you would draw three um for the first round, there's three rounds in the game, you draw three uh cards, and you've got two dice. And the dice in this box, I have to say, they are chonky, they're absolutely mahoosive, um, which I love. I love chonky dice. I don't know what it is about them, but they're really, really big and really pretty. And so effectively you're you're rolling two dice and you'll get two numbers, and you write these numbers on on the little pad or on the card itself, because they're all kind of dry erase uh cards that you can wipe off, and you're using one number in one realm and the other number in another realm, and that's going to trigger off different things that you can do within that kind of minigame. It sounds simple, and you get nine rounds, and once you've done the nine rounds, you're pretty much done and dusted, and you get um basically you're trying to get the the most amount of stars possible. Each realm can offer up to six stars, and you're trying to get six stars in each realm, which is very difficult. Um, and there are ways to kind of help boost that where you can do um basically collect resources, you can collect coins, you can collect pumpkins and hearts, and you can spend those to manipulate the dice values up or down, or add additional dice into the mix to help you do more with the role, etc. So it's very puzzly and very satisfying, and pretty much as a game, it takes 15 minutes and it's really, really quick. And you can play this. Um, and it says here one to six players because that's what it gives you out of the box, but you could play this infinitely if you had all of the materials and things like that. But for those watching, um, I'm gonna jump into some of the pictures. Here's a picture of the dice, um, which big chunky dice, but if I kind of go into um yeah, some of the the realms here that are kind of on offer, you know, here's like flame craft was one year, dog, dog park and tidal blades uh was was another. And again, you you're literally just kind of writing on the cards, you're you're circling things, you're you're kind of ticking things off, you're spending those resources to ultimately try and get the stars that you colouring um at the bottom. And and again, that's round one. You should you can basically draw the next three realms, do round two, draw the next three realms, you do round three. And effectively, that's um pretty much the the kind of full game. Um, but what comes in here, and what I wanted to kind of highlight specifically is the solo uh kind of mode in there, which I thought was done uh exceptionally well. And in this mode or in this box, you've got this uh solo mode called R Ball. Um, not um basically a pirates thing, it's basically uh like triple R, R R R Ball, and it's basically the Rolling Realms Redux ball, and it's like a sports um league table that you're competing in to effectively try and win over a series of weeks and ultimately to get promoted or or relegated, ideally not through the different league tables. So there are five uh leagues um that you you kind of have in a game and you start on league four, so kind of second from bottom. So yeah, I suppose you have a uh a way of of being um relegated, which you do not want to happen, and you're playing against three other bots. Um so effectively what's happening is you've got these five weeks, these cards, and the top half of the card, it gives you the results of the two other bots that you're not playing in that week. And you roll the die, you add the realm, uh sorry, you add the league number to it. So if I roll a six and I'm on league four, that would be ten. And I go across the table and effectively get the the score results for for those two bots, and they're kind of measured on goals, not stars that they've they've got, but goals. And bear with me, it all makes sense in a minute. So then you play your game versus the bot, because there's four of you in this this league, and this is where um you kind of have these these cards that sit um below the realm cards. It's like a table of all of the games, and the stars, the the bots would have won um had they they kind of played that particular game, and then it's modified whether it's the A-bot, the B bot or the C bot. Sometimes they get a bit extra, sometimes they get a bit less, all that kind of stuff. Um so so yeah, that's pretty much um kind of how that works. And then you play your actual game of Rolling Realms. So then you're you're kind of doing on the way um to basically trying to get as many stars as you can. And if you beat the the number of stars that you get versus what it got, then you're scoring goals. So you get you can get three goals from each of the the left, the center, and the right uh cards, because uh the the realms are kind of organized in a kind of one by three row. Um then you get three goals over it, and then if you've got the most stars overall, you'll get the goal. So effectively you can get up to four goals, and then you kind of write your results in there and away you go. And you'll kind of play through all these weeks, um, which is five weeks, and then you'll get as much as you can done um as as possible. And ideally at the end of the league, you'll want to have the most goals, the most points. And if you're in the top of the league, you'll get promoted and you'll go to the end of league three. And then it's gonna get harder and harder as you progress. So you get less and less turns to actually do well. So, yeah, it's got this real nice, re-engaging aspect, and it's quite simple to run. There's not, you know, when I'm saying bots, it's not like they're actually doing anything or interacting with the game as it as such, but it gives you scores that you you're trying to beat and it helps you pivot and prioritize in different ways. I really enjoyed this. I took this away with me uh on a work trip, um, and I played it in the hotels because it does not need that much space. And I had a blast. It reminded me of the the COVID days when I was playing Rolling Realms, and and I really enjoy this game as a rolling write. It's probably one of my favourite roll and write games, and it's not a genre I typically um love. So, so yeah, that's pretty much um pretty much Rolling

Magical Athlete

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Realms. So let's jump into the next game, which is Magical Athlete. Now, Magical Athlete, I've heard a lot of buzz about this game on on the whole socials, you know, Instagram. A lot of people have been talking about magical athlete. And um yeah, I thought I'd check this out. And I have to kind of say on record, this game, I shouldn't like this game. I should absolutely hate this game. This game is random bullshit, um, at the best of of times. Probably should be called um type magical random bullshit or something. But I I I'm gonna say I I enjoyed it. I uh I enjoyed kind of what this game is is doing and and kind of the the environment that it creates. But I'll I'll explain exactly what it is. For those that don't know what Magic Athlete uh is, it's effectively a racing game um where you're drafting magical races um to to basically uh race over four separate races and and you're trying to get the most points, and that's pretty much it. That's pretty much what you're doing. And the main core mechanic in this, and bear with me, I kind of feel a little bit sick of my mouth just saying it, is uh is roll and move. I know, roll and move, right? It's it sucks. But uh weirdly, in this game it works, it absolutely works. Um, because this game knows what it is. This game's not trying to be anything other than it it's trying to be, you know. It it's it's a roll and move racing game, something like uh probably what you would have designed if you were you know a child, because it kind of got that artwork, it looks like cartoony and bonkers, and and yeah, and don't switch off and you think why do you like this game, JP? What's so special about it? Well, the first thing that's different is that you're drafting those races. So each racer has a power and it could be one of the races, what from memory sucker fish, right? One of the races is uh is a fish that basically if it starts on a space with another racer, and if that racer moves, it basically moves along with it because it sucks onto it. And you've got one that's a mouth where if it ends its turn on another racer, it eats it and removes it from the game. And you've got all of these races with these crazy bonkers powers, and you do a draft between you. So if you've got a six player, you're gonna like um put out 12 cards at the start, and then you're gonna go and do a snake draft, so then you'll get two races each, and then you do another 12 and you get another two. So you've got a hand of four races in your hand, and then you submit one face down into the first race, and everyone does the same, and then you flip them, and everyone goes, Oh, what have you got? Who's who? What does that power do? And you start everyone on the start line. So if I just give you uh for those who are watching on YouTube, you can kind of see uh the the bonkers characters that you get in there, and yes, there's one called Huge Baby, and Huge Baby does not share spaces with anyone. Um, but effectively you've got uh a racetrack, which is this long, thin um kind of cardboard um board, and it's literally like a a U-shaped track, and there's not that much on there other than just spaces, so it's two-sided, one's called the Mild Mile, and then on the other side it's called the Wild Wilds. But your first race is on the mild mile, and the second race, you flip it over, you do it on the wild wilds, where there's a lot more going on on the board, collecting stars, moving forward, moving backwards, all that kind of stuff. And basically, you are um you get your dice, you roll it, and you go off you go, one, two, three, whatever it is, and you can land on a space, next person has their go. But there's obviously all the powers are starting to interact with each other. So if your power could be that you will always move five, but then you know, if you're at the front or something, you don't move as much. There's just so much bonkers nonsense going on, it just creates this hilarity, honestly, just creates this absolute chaos that's really beautiful to kind of see in a board game. And again, I shouldn't like this. I like Euro games, I like determinism in games, I don't like random bullshit, but because I know what I'm signing up for in this game, just by the way it is and what it looks and and how it works, I kind of don't mind it. I'm I'm not here. Obviously, I want to win because we want to win those games, but it it's just the experience of it, it's just the the fact that what you thought was gonna happen um doesn't happen, and and all sorts of just shenanigans kind of happen afoot, and it's just a great party game. Um, like this was the standout game that I took on holiday to Egypt, and all my family and uh friends um were were playing this, and we we had full six player, it's brilliant. It was just so good, lots of carnage, lots of dice rolling, and it's just so pacey as well, because you roll your dice, you move your thing, interact with the power, next turn, next turn, next turn, and then then it's done. And yeah, it it was just such a blast. We're such a uh good fun kind of playing uh magical athlete. And yeah, for those that are got kind of family members and like that kind of party style game, I'd recommend it. If this is for your die hard gaming group who like Euro games and nothing else, avoid this like the plague, you're gonna hate it. Um, but yeah, I just wanted to talk about it because these these games with Rolling Realms and Magical Athlete, you know, they're not my typical staple games. And I thought it's just quite good to, yeah, kind of give them a bit of airtime because yeah, they there's a reason why this keeps selling out. It's a reason why this is popular. And uh the other one I think it gets compared to is Hot Streak, which is another racing game. Haven't played that, I'd like to give that a go. Um, but yeah, I'm glad I've got a copy of Magical Athlete. It's something we'll we'll wheel out, no doubt at Christmas and birthdays

PHASE C: CENTRE OF THE TABLE

SPEAKER_00 18:04

and things like that. So there we go. That's uh the end I've just played. So let's jump into the main segment of the show, which is my uh top uh solo card games of all time, the ones I think you should definitely check out. And I wanted to do this episode because you know I play solo games a lot, and most of my solo play is card games. And usually with card games, you're playing them, you know, against other people. You need opponents or or whatever to do so. And you know, and and I found a good collection of games that I just really like to play on my own. Sometimes I prefer them solo than I do actually for playing with other people. Um, but the other reason why I like these is because the setup time is is minimal. Um, you're you're just playing within minutes, you're straight in, and you can kind of usually play and pack it up in quick succession without kind of worrying about much or doing much there. So and I thought I'd share which ones I like playing, and maybe some of these you you have played and you agree, and maybe some of them you haven't had a chance to try out, and I encourage you to do so. But also, if I haven't mentioned any that you think I would like based on kind of my selection, then I want to know about them. So please, you know, comment um in in the YouTube uh comments or comment on socials. I would really like to know. So, shall we get straight into it? Should we get stuck in?

5. Unstoppable

SPEAKER_00 19:21

So, in number five is uh game I have actually already talked about in previous episodes, and that is Unstoppable. So, Unstoppable um is a card crafting game by John D. Clare, and uh effectively you are playing as uh one of these faction characters, um, like one of us is uh member of the Silver family, and you are kind of taking your deck of cards, you are um every turn you're allowed to kind of get a card from your level, and there are ways of like leveling up and getting you access to better card pools, but you're always going to deck build and take one card into the deck, and and effectively your deck's kind of two form. It's deck your deck's giving you opportunities to do stuff, but your deck on the other side are the minions that you need to kill um in order to kind of progress the game and and and move forward. So you kind of got this this nice scaling mechanic with this game is that the more you upgrade, the more cards you get, the more powerful cards you get, uh, the more powerful the minions will be against you. And also, not only are you deck building um additional cards into your deck, you're crafting these attachments that kind of go into the cards as well, because all the cards are sleeved and they have a little notch out in the side of the card. So you can buy these attachments that fills one of the two empty spaces and boost the card in different ways. You might give it more damage dealing, you might heal with it, you might do something else, get some more economy with with money, and all of these attachments will cost you bucks um to buy. And just the fact that you can tailor your deck not only in what cards it has in it, but also um attaching different um yeah, kind of bonuses to the cards, it's just it's such a fun, neat little mechanic. And yeah, and you're just trying to basically go against the boss um and you're you'll basically just need to beat the boss and you win. And just the journey and progression that the game provides is really good. But if you want to hear more about it, I'll I'll link um to the episode where I actually did a bit more in depth about Unstoppable because I don't want to basically do the same thing again. Um, but that's number five.

4: Earthborn Rangers

SPEAKER_00 21:31

So we go to number four. Number four for me is Earthborne Rangers. So Earthborne Rangers, I I kind of highlighted it um previously, uh I think on a previous episode, when I was kind of comparing it to Vantage, even though they're not remotely the same, but they kind of sit in a similar uh wheelhouse of game, which is exploration um and an adventure. And Earthborne Rangers is by Earthborne Games. Um and basically it's an open world sandbox game, uh kind of campaign-y sandbox game, but all done in cards, all done in card format. So when you open the box, you get an abundance of cards, and then when you play the game to start with, you're building your character, and your character has a personality which has these four traits on which is like spirit and fitness and awareness and and focus. And of course, like in every kind of character creation, you can't be good on absolutely everything. You're gonna pick where you're good on and where you're weak on, and then from there, you're gonna kind of deck construct um different personalities into your um your deck. You're gonna have a different uh job that you're gonna do or different um kind of like not hobby, but just kind of uh things that you're interested in. Um so you could be like a shaper of the environment, you could be um basically affecting the weather around you, kind of like a magician, but probably more druid, that kind of thing. Um, you can be someone who's really good with animals. Um, you could be a herbalist, you know, good with growing things, something like that. And I love the fact that it's very green, right? And what I mean by that, it's like very agricultural, it's very in touch with nature, and the whole world, the premise of the world is is effectively set way in the future where nature has reclaimed the earth, and humans had been living on the ground for I don't know, eons and eons, and they've finally come out onto the surface and they don't recognize the earth anymore. The cities have gone, it's literally lush, rolling hills. Um, there are settlements and things like that, but it's kind of like a futuristic solar punk kind of vibe. And yeah, you you start as a ranger, you build your ranger, and effectively you're going on this quest. And it really starts off quite whimsical and simple in the fact that you're like, right, you're gonna you're gonna need to deliver some biscuits to the near in a neighboring town. And I'm not spoiling anything, it literally happens in the first session, and you go, okay, cool, and off you go, and you get this map. And the map says, right, go where you want. Now, just because you get a quest that says you can go over there, you can do what you want in the game. If I want to go, actually, I want to go up to the lake at the north, because that just looks interesting to me, then off you go, you can do that. Or if I want to go south and do something, I can do what I want. And and as you kind of progress with the game, you're gonna pick up side quests, you're gonna interact with NPCs. Um, and again, there's the way, and again, this is all cards, it's not a board game, it's all happening with cards in a card system. Um, very much kind of like Arkham Horror, the card game, but with an open world system where you can jump to kind of wherever you want to. Um, and yeah, you're going on these quests, you're accumulating more quests, and there's a obviously there's a main story thread that you're kind of following that you'll go through. And I fell in love with this game. As soon as I played it, I just fell in love with how this worked. And and yeah, it's just I just dove straight in and I wanted to explore the whole world. But mechanically, it's it's very uh clever in that you'll be at a particular um kind of location, and depending on the location, it would depend on the path deck that you need to create for that location. So it could be a pivotal location, which is like a main settlement area, or it could just be uh uh like a standard location. So you put the the location um where you are at the top of the kind of play area, and then the path deck is there, and then you've got your main deck at the bottom, which has all of the the goodies of things for you to deal with, uh, the nonsense that will will come your way. And you're always gonna be dealing a path card, and then depending on the card, it'll either go into a row, which is called along the way, which is uh just below the the path card, or you're gonna get one which is within reach, which is just in front of you, but below the along the way. And this could be the animals, like it's like the flora and fauna of of the biome that you're particularly in, and there are you know six or seven different biomes that you can you can kind of play in. And yeah, basically you are trying to interact with with these different things. So if it's uh uh like a deer, um deer isn't naturally uh hostile to you, but um what's clever about it is that the weather, as the weather kind of changes and shifts, there's uh um you're you're basically doing tests on on different cards. You can go, actually, I want to interact with a deer, I want to see if I can get this. Or there's a bush there, I want to interact to get some berries because I might need to heal up or whatever. And as you're doing tests, you're you're obviously taking um uh the the cards, the challenge cards, you'll flip the cards, and that's like, oh, you get a plus two modifier on your your fitness level, which is red or or whatever it is, depending on what the test requires, and then it will trigger one of three colours at the bottom of that challenge card, and then you look at the whole tableau of cards, yours and the the paths included, and a bunch of stuff happens. And the way that this interacts with each other, so if you've got a predator on there, it's gonna try and catch prey, you know, like deers and things on there. Um, or if that's not there, it's gonna try and get you and injure you. Um, and then lots of things are kind of triggering and and and like kicking off in different and weird and wonderful ways, and it's just really bloody clever. And you think, Christ, it's just a set of cards. How does this even work? Um, but I just really enjoy the game, I really enjoy um playing it. Um, I did kind of hit it too hard though when I first played it. I literally played Earthborne Rangers all weekend, and then I played for the first few weeks for you know every other night I was playing it, and then I had to kind of back off because I was like, I'm gonna get fatigued on this if I don't. But I have finished the main campaign um and I had to have a little break from it, but now I'm ready to crack on with the Legacy of Ancestors expansion, and I'm actually looking forward to that. But I know it's gonna demand some time with me. But the other reason why I like to play this solo, because you can play this with people, and I think with two players, this would be really good as well. Um, I don't think I'd want to play it at four, it'd be too much, but I like it solo because because it's a campaign game that requires, I don't know, 20, 21, 22 sessions, I can do that when I want, and I can play that when I want, and I can probably play one or two sessions each each time I play. And yeah, for me, it's just I can get it to the table. And if I was playing that with someone, I don't think it I would have even finished it by now. But the fact I have is an achievement in itself. So yeah, Earthborne Rangers, I really recommend that. Um, for those that kind of want that adventure uh sandbox, like Zelda Breath of the Wild kind of style uh game with artwork, and but but yeah, but it's but it's like kind of like that Arkham Horror card game mechanics that maybe you enjoy. So that's that

3. Baseball Highlights 2045

SPEAKER_00 28:44

one. Number three. Number three has come in hot and fast from my Memphis trip. Um and having watched um a real life game of baseball when I watched the uh the Memphis Redbirds, and here I actually have um the Memphis Redbirds uh baseball, which I got as a souvenir from that game. And that's my first proper baseball game that I've ever watched, and I really enjoyed it. I didn't think I would enjoy baseball as much as I did, and yeah, I loved it. I love the whole experience of it. I love the fact that it's family friendly and and yeah, and we had a good show. I literally turned up one in the afternoon, and by evening they were putting fireworks on and all sorts of stuff, and yeah, it was it was absolutely great fun. Um, so what am I talking about? Baseball. Well, there's a game that I've been wanting to pick up ever since I played baseball highlights 2045, and um, and basically I've been trying to get a copy of this game because it's quite hard to get hold of, it's not exactly available, it's an older game. And um, yeah, I've been looking to try and get a copy. And on weirdly, one day on the Gaming Rules uh Slack channel, which I'm a Patreon supporter, so I'm a part of that, um, Steve uh was selling uh a copy of that. And basically I got in touch with him and and yeah, he he did me a fantastic deal on the game, and not just the base game, but a bunch of expansions and all the teams and things, and uh yeah, I've got a copy of that. So, Steve, if you're listening or watching, thank you, thank you so much for that. I really appreciate it. And the fact that this is already made number three on my list probably shows you that I'm really enjoying the game. So I really appreciate that. Thanks, mate. Um, so baseball highlights, uh, again, if you want to check the the kind of just play reunion episode I did with Rob when I was out in Memphis, uh, I talk about this in a bit more detail. But effectively, it's a baseball game set in the future of 2045 because baseball was kind of on its way out. Um, the the kind of it wasn't being consumed as much by by people wanting to watch the game. So they wanted to kind of sex it up a bit by putting cyborgs and and robots in. You know, cyborgs are brilliant at pitching, and robots are brilliant at smashing the ball out of the park. And and they've got their human players, and they call them naturals, who are trying to keep up with obviously the technology of cyborgs and robots being in the game, and they've become like these superstars. So, yeah, so you've got those kind of three different aspects there that kind of play in this game or futuristic baseball. But basically, what the game actually is is seven games of baseball all in one where you are playing the highlights of each game. Sounds weird, right? But bear with me. And you pick a team. So I think in the base game, there's four teams, so you like pick New York, or you can pick Boston, or whatever. And in that starter team, there are 15 cards. 10 cards are always the same. These are your rookies, they're the same, and any team that you pick has a good variety of different skills and utility that you need to do. Then you have five veterans that are in that team, which are unique to that team. And I think as they've expanded the game, there are 24 teams of each where there are 12 different teams of mechanics that are slightly different, and then there are carbon copies of those teams that are called different names, so you can pitch them against each other. So if you want a similar matchup, you can do that. So there are 24 teams, uh, I think in total, there might be more, so don't quote me on that. Um, where you can basically play against each other and you play games of baseball. Um, so typically how a game works, and this is where it's quite unique. This game is very different and it's a bugger to explain. Now, I'm gonna try and sort of explain it, and it's probably gonna make no sense. Um, but the the barrier to this I found initially was trying to get my head around the mechanisms and how the flow of the game goes from you to the other player to you to the other player. Now, obviously, I play this solo, but if I just quickly explain how this works, so you've got your little mini board, and on the board there, you've got your deck um and your discard pile, and they're called the line out, lineup and uh the dugout. Uh, and then you've got a section in the middle, which is where you play all your play cards, and then you've got your your bases of third, second, third base, and home base, and you've got these little wooden pawns that are representing the the batters and base runners that will run around for you to score runs just like in normal baseball. And so effectively, what you're doing on your card, which looks like a uh baseball card with the you know baseball player and all that kind of stuff, there are kind of three sections to that card, and they they all work in slightly different ways. Again, apologies if you're not following on this. But you're gonna play that card, and on the first bit is the immediate action. Now, typically, if you are the the visitor player, you're gonna go first, and you'll probably want to play a card that has no immediate action or has one that's specifically for you playing your your first card, I think called leadoff, and so you'll trigger that and immediate action. But usually that's gonna be an offensive um uh action against the other player, but that can't happen if they haven't played their card yet, or it's a defensive, likewise, you might not have um your your pieces in play. So you're gonna play that, and then what would happen is the other player would would trigger their threatened hits, which they haven't got any yet. So I'll come back to that, and then you would place your your um your kind of threatened hits um on the board. So if your card had single and a double on it, you'd put two batters, and the colour would uh denote what speed they are. So you've got white for slow, average for blue, and fast uh for red. So if you had two hit boxes, you'd put two batters on on the home base. Okay. And then the other player would play their card. So they'll play their card, they'll initiate their uh immediate ability, which might say uh cancel one hit, and I have to take one of my um batters off or one of my hits off uh my board. Then once they've used their ability, I'll go back to my card and then I execute my hit boxes where it says single and double. I've now got one less than I did before. So I'd put one on single and then I'd execute the double, and then I'll move the other pawn around two bases if it was a slow as an example. There are variations to this rule. Um, and then he would um or she would put their batters on based on the hitboxes that they have on their card, and then I would play my card, and around and round and round we go. And I've probably lost you, but don't worry about it because you're not playing the game. But it's very clever. So you've you've basically got this this bouncing back and forward mechanism of I'm gonna do a thing, which means then you're gonna run your thing and I'm gonna set my thing up for next turn, and then you're gonna try and interrupt that. So it's kind of like a bit of programming, but you're trying to get the best of getting your um your batters out onto the bases and run them around as as best as you can and and away you go. And that's kind of the game, and you play that best of seven, but you know, if you get to four games, then obviously you've won because the other player can't catch up. So, yeah, once you've played a uh a main game, you then go through a buying phase, and this is the call bit, it's a deck builder. So you your your team that you've played on your six cards will generate you revenue, and that revenue is then used to buy a player from the free agents uh market, and then the player you buy means you've got to send one of your other players to the minor leagues that are in that that set that you've bought with, and that's basically trash from your decks. You're always gonna have 15 cards. So over the course of each game, you're individually buying new players and recruiting new players to your team to do wonderful, wacky, and crazy, crazy stuff, and that's where the the fun comes in the game because the team you have at the end of the series is not the team that you start with, and yeah, you can do some really cool, cool synergies with that. But in solo, because obviously this is uh I play solo as a card game. What's good about um that is you effectively take the free agent deck, which has got all the powerful cards in, you take 15 out of them, um, which you shuffle, and then you run. That's the deck, that's the setup done. And you tend to do a few buying rounds before you play the game, so you get some head start on on getting uh some good players, and yeah, effectively that's that's kind of what you do, and then you just play the game, as I've just said, you go back, forth, back, forth. And yeah, and because it's it's random, powerful deck, it can synergize quite well, and sometimes it doesn't. But I I've had a blast playing it. Um, and once you get your head around the rules, it's it's really good. So that's baseball highlights.

2. Ashes Ascendancy

SPEAKER_00 37:11

So number two is uh gonna be Ash's uh Ascendancy. So Ashes or Ash it's Rise of the Phoenix Born or Ashes uh, which is now called Ascendancy. This game is absolutely phenomenal, it's beautiful. It's probably my favourite TCG kind of style, you know, 1v1, you know, uh battle kind of card game. But this isn't my solo list because I actually play this not against uh players, I play this more solo against um bots um and different solo modes that it comes in the game. But you're playing as a Phoenix born, a Phoenix born's like this: this grand character that usually has magic powers, and you're summoning uh mana and um uh magic, um, which is all dealt with in this dice pool. Again, nice, chunky, beautiful custom dice that you get. Now, typically, you might have one or two um kind of magic uh affiliations there, it could be nature magic, could be chaos, illusion, whatever. And you basically start the turn, you roll the die, and you've got a bunch of symbols, and the symbols can be spent um based on your cards to uh invoke and summon um basically beasts from your spellboard. So you can put spells into your spellboard, you can summon like minions into the battlefield to help you deal with what you need to deal with. You've also got your general minions, which aren't magical, that will help you, and again, you're you're putting minions down, you're fighting the opponent, you're trying to deal damage, and effectively take the other phoenix born out of commission. But in solo, um, because I've got the ascendancy version, I actually went all in on the Kickstarter a year or two ago, which was mad because it wasn't cheap. But I have so much content for this game, and I've been enjoying diving through and going through trying all of the different Phoenix Bawns, it's been a blast. But in Ascendancy, you get what's called a dragonborn, which is like an AI bot version of a Phoenix born, and it's really simple to run, it's real easy to run. And I love playing games against it because it's just a way of me understanding how the kind of game works and understanding the different kind of routes of of victory you can get from from that game as well. And I've also got a lot of the red reins um uh content as well, which is red reigns kind of bring these big chimeras, these big monsters into the battle, but very similarly um in rules with the dragon ball, and it works very similar. Um, but you're fighting these big beasts, and again, that's just really good fun to do. But yeah, Ashes Ascendancy, I love it solo, I love it 1v1, and yeah, I'm proud to kind of have that in my collection.

1. Star Trek Captains Chair

SPEAKER_00 39:47

So then we get to uh my number one now. For those that are listened to um, you know, my previous podcast, Whose Turn is it anyway, uh, will know exactly what this is. Um, but for those that don't know, it is of course Star Trek Captain's Chair, and I'd say mini slash imperium system. So the Imperium games as well. Um Star Well, what can I what can I say? I I'm gonna wax lyrical about Star Trek Captain's Chair. I I first got into the Imperion system when I played Imperium Classics and then Imperium Legends and then Imperium Horizons, and I love Imperium as a game where you play as a civilization and you build them up through for the ages. I absolutely adore it. Um, and I was just like in awe of how that system worked, how it used deck building, how it used a basically a static deck, um, which is always the same at the start, it's always got the same kind of ways to progress, but the way that the deck building infuses into it unlocks so many different strategies. Star Trek Captain's Chair took that system, streamlined elements of it, and and basically I think made it better, in my opinion. Um, and I like Star Trek. I'm not I wouldn't really call myself a massive Trekie. I really enjoyed the films, the old films with William Shatner and uh all of that kind of stuff, Kirk and Spock and going on their adventures, and yeah, I you know, nuclear vessels is always something that that kind of sticks with me. Um, but generally, like I've loved the films. I watched Voyager a little bit when I um was a lot younger. I kind of missed uh Deep Space Nine and Next Generation, I I completely missed it. Um, but yeah, I I got this game um and I got into it um quite early and I got an early copy as well. I was quite fortunate because I attended a uh a tournament. And because I I'm friends with David Turtsy as well, which obviously helps because David Tursey designed this uh along with Nigel Buckle because it's based on the Imperium system, and now David's brother Adam Turtsy has joined the the ranks for for the second box because now we've got to boldly go and second contact, which is uh all the wave two content. Um that's basically uh just landed uh pretty much a few weeks back. So effectively, you're playing as a captain of um uh the Star Trek lore, but you are actually moving back, you're you're like a Starfleet cadet based in the future, running a simulation um and of of portraying one of the captains, which is why you can have a mashup of um you know uh old-style Star Trek captain going up against uh just you know Star Trek Discovery captain, which are completely different timelines. And you're basically doing um uh the the Imperion system, which is you've got a uh your deck of cards, you're gonna draw and you're gonna go through. And when you deck out, you'll take one of the reserve cards, which is a separate deck, and that goes and gets fed into the deck, meaning you've got one extra card. So every time you deck out, you're gonna get the reserves until the reserves are gone, and then you've got your developments, which are all super powerful, super cool, and you're gonna pay for those using Dilithian crystals or Latinum or Glory or some combination of requirements or whatever, and and yeah, you're then kind of improving what you're doing all the way, and then your deck building as well. So you're kind of um you've got uh people, you've got ships, you've got cargo, and you've got uh allies that you can kind of get, and then there are ways of getting these um like super powerful encounter cards as well, which are just absolutely bonkers, um, and you're gonna want uh a few fair few of those. But what I love about this game is that each captain is different. Each captain is so different in in how they uh basically operate and behave, and even in the core box where you've got um you know, you've got uh Picard, you've got Schran from um Enterprise, you've got um Cisco from Deep Space Nine, you've got you know Captain Burnham from Discovery and a few others in there. And then in box two, you've got Kirk from the movies, you've got Karn, Carn, you've got Khan, you've got uh basically all different um yeah, captains from different uh bunches of different areas. I think Jonathan Archer's also in there from Enterprise. Price. So you've got now, I think you've got what 15 captains if you buy all of that content. And every one of them is different. Everyone will play differently, have different kinds of rules in what it's wanting you to do. And I just love experiencing that game and love playing that game and going through the motions from start to end, starting my story and ending my story. Sending my ships or warping my ships into the neutral zone and trying to claim those territories or having militaristic um kind of fights with with the opponent and etc. And it's just an absolute friggin' joy to play. And I suppose the only negative on it is that it can last a long time. You know, I need to carve out two hours for that game. But I'm playing solo, I don't care. Because it's two hours where I get lost and have such great, great kind of decision space. And if you love Star Trek, love card games, you don't mind a bit of crunch, then you need to pick this up because it's literally the best Star Trek game I've I've ever played. Um so yeah, and solo-wise, you can do a variety of different things. You can play cadet mode, which is just you playing by yourself trying to get the best score. All right, and that's a good way of learning the decks, it's a good way of learning what's going on. You can also play against the bot, and the bot's uh exceptionally designed, it works really well, you follow what it's doing, and yeah, once you get your kind of head around it, you're you're away, and again, it simulates the player really well. What I really like is that they give you a five-year mission solo kind of campaign mode where you play um to beat the five other captains in the box or different box, and if you beat them, you get uh basically um some bonuses that they give you to help you with the next one, the next one, and the difficulty increases and increases. Now I've done one of the solo campaigns uh with Picard, I haven't done the others, I really want to, but my box two's just turned up and I can't wait to start diving into that content. Um, and I'll say again because I have play tested a little bit of wave two and uh a fair bit of wave three, so yeah, I'm looking forward to just having my copy and playing it. So yeah, anyway, I could talk about Star Trek Captain's Chair to the Cows Come Home. It's fantastic, it is my number one. Nothing kind of tops that at the minute, and I think you know, I need to stop recording this episode so we can go and play it, really. So there we go. So that is pretty much that segment, and I think due to time, I'm gonna kind of skip the what's hot and what's not, mainly because I recorded episode six not that long ago, and I think the BGG hotness hasn't changed too much since then. So I'm gonna skip past that and go straight to

PHASE D: JUST ABOUT TO PLAY

SPEAKER_00 46:39

um just about to play. So just about to play for me is um yeah, I've got a game of Forbidden Stars uh coming up uh literally tonight. So I'm playing that tonight um round Mark Monk's Ninja Geek games on his live stream. He's doing a ye old old school uh stream where he's going through the old fantasy flight games of old back in the golden days. And Forbidden Stars has been a game that I've been wanting to play for a long time. I'm not a massive 40k Warhammer 40k fan, like I don't know the lore, um, but I heard that as a 4X kind of style game, it's one of the greats. And I'm looking forward to having a bit of the old school FFG um kind of play style. So that is what I'm looking forward to. But as I said, getting into my Star Trek Captain's Chair wave two content, playing more baseball highlights because it's just consuming my brain um at the moment, and I think just generally getting back into some good old-fashioned board games of me sitting at my table, because I've been away so much, I've just not had the the capacity and time to host uh many games. I'm just looking forward to to getting people back around

PHASE E: THE LAST PLAY

SPEAKER_00 47:47

the table to play. But there we go, that's the end of the episode. And again, thank you so much for for those that have been watching, listening um on all the usual stuff. Um for now, for those that are listening on Spotify, you can absolutely watch this episode on Spotify now. So I've uh activated the video, so hopefully that works. So, yeah, so you can watch that on Spotify, you can watch us on Apple, and of course you can watch on YouTube. And if you haven't yet, join the Discord server and encourage you to jump in and join. We've got a bunch of great people in there. We like talking about the games we play and all sorts of things that are just played and cardboard. And yeah, welcome to to basically get in there and have a bit of fun. Um, but yeah, if you want to support the show, keep uh helping uh myself run and keep it going, then I have a coffee um where you know any any kind of support uh is very, very helpful. So for those that do support, you are amazing. Thank you, thank you so much. Um, and pretty much all that's left to say is the usual. You only grow old when you stop playing. Take care, everyone.