OPENING

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It's that time again. Essen Spiel 2026 is nearly upon us, and I list 12 games that I'm looking forward to learning more about.

PHASE A: PULL UP A CHAIR

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Welcome everybody to the Just Play podcast. I'm your host, JP, and in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about my preview list uh for the upcoming Essen spiel in 2026. So I can't believe Essen is is literally a month away or less than a month away. Um so it's a good time to start bringing that list together. Um I'm excited about the trip. I'm excited about going. Um I'm gonna be doing a full-on episode uh afterwards when I get back to basically let you know uh about all the shenanigans that have kind of ensued. And we're going with a big group this year, there's lots of uh different people, lots of people from the you know, whose turn is it anyway podcast crew are going. And uh also Paul Grogan, Ninja Geek Games. Basically, there's a load of us, so yeah, we've got uh sure we've got news and stories to tell. Um, also, uh, you'll probably notice I am wearing some apparel. Uh, I have now got my just play uh merch um sorted so that when I'm around in Essen you can see and spot me, not only on the front, but also on the back as well. You can kind of just catch catch the logo. So if you see me at the uh the event, come and say hi. I'd love to meet you and talk all things

PHASE B: CENTRE OF THE TABLE

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cardboard. But let's not waste any time. Let's get straight into Viz and we'll go straight into uh the list of of 12 games. But before I do that, I've got some honourable mentions. So honourable mentions that didn't quite make the list, not because I don't think they're any good or or anything. These are just three games that are or games or expansions that I just wanted to kind of list uh that didn't quite make the list. So the first one up is um by Mindclash Play, which is the uh Ironwood Steel and Spirit expansion. Now, I like Ironwood, I've got Ironwood, I've played it a number of times, and this expansion just kind of adds uh a bit more nuances to the uh the 1v1 conflict between the you know the ironclad and the uh the woodwalkers. So new units, new things. Uh I don't know much about it. I'm gonna find out more when I go uh basically to to the event. Um the next one is dirt and dust and its expansion, Harbor Drift. And the reason why I didn't make my my list is because I've not even played dirt and dust yet. Um this came out last year, which is kind of a a deck building rally game. Um, and the theme for me is is pretty is pretty good. Like it's it's up my street, and I know that a lot of people have said it's a bit like multiplayer um solitaire when they do play it with people, but rallying is kind of like that anyway, right? You know, you don't race against people on the same track, you're racing against the time, so it kind of probably is more thematic um as a as a racer uh in that respect. But it's got a new mini expansion, I think it's a new course. Um, but I'm trying to get my hands on the copy of Dirt and Dust so I can kind of give it a fair shake, really, and maybe I'll I'll try and pick the expansion up while I'm there. The next one uh caught me by surprise actually, and I was going through the the preview list, just scrolling through on uh board game geek, and the the box art just struck me and I went, oh my god, it looks like uh Super Punch Out. Um so for those that remember, like back in the day on the Super Nintendo or the SNES, there was a game called Super Punch Out where you play as a boxer and you're going up against these real colourful, colourful characters, and you have to kind of learn their patterns and learn their movements to be able to defeat them. And I love and adore this game, and I still sometimes play it on like some emulators, and uh I love playing Super Punch Out, it's just a fantastic game. Now, Power Punch uh by Rockstone and Dice Um is basically I think it looks like an homage to that game. I think you play as a 1v1 where you're kind of playing these uh kind of cartoony over-the-top style boxes, and uh yeah, you're kind of duking it out to the point where if you're getting knocked out, um, you actually become more powerful, more dangerous. So the more you get knocked out, the closer to defeat you are, but more uh dangerous you become. And I think that's gonna kind of you know give you some kind of memorable uh kind of duking matches between you. But I know nothing about the game other than the artwork just kind of screamed out super punch out. So hence it made the honourable mentions list. So I'm gonna be checking

12. Courtroom: The Noir Trilogy

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that one out. But let's get straight into it. Let's start with number 12. Number 12 is Courtroom, the Noir Trilogy from Mindclash Play. And I've already, you know, uh spoiler alert, I've already got a copy of this. It literally arrived uh two days ago. So as I pull my list together, I've technically got it, but I doubt I'll get a chance to play this probably until Essen or near Essen. So hopefully I can kind of give you my my thoughts on on the uh the game and how it works. But but effectively in the game, it's set in like the the 1930s, or maybe an alternate history of 1930s uh in Hollywoodland, and um so again, you know, as the name suggests, noir, so it's got that noir feeling. There are three cases in this box, and you're effectively playing a team game, like team the prosecution versus team defense, and you are trying to basically win the case for your side. So either you know, if you're playing as a 2v2 or 3v3, it doesn't really matter. Um, you basically split into your teams, and the game kind of goes through these uh three different um sections. So you kind of have a research phase where you're gonna have uh a bunch of uh evidence uh kind of cards all laid out for different aspects of the case. So it could be around the murder weapon or or individual um you know time and location and all that kind of thing. So basically evidence proving or disproving that um the person did the murder or did the the crime or whatever it is, um, and basically as a part of the team, you're picking seven of these, um, and they're picking seven, and you're effectively reviewing all this evidence, making notes and understanding what's going on, and you keep two of these uh evidence cards secret to the other team so they don't get to review. So then you put the five back, they put their five back, and then you can freely review from the other side of the coin, and so you kind of get in most of the story, but not the whole story. So there's some elements that you don't know. Um, and then you kind of move into a testimony phase, and the testimony phase is is really you having a bunch of witnesses, I think it's six witness cards that kind of get brought down, and you'll now um basically uh asking questions of the witnesses based on the evidence card number. So you have these dials, you'll uh simultaneously pick a number that you want to be asking questions on, reveal, and and so on and so forth, you'll be basically getting uh witness reactions off that. And here's where you've got your couple of tokens that you can use for objection. So if you really don't want the opposition um asking that question, because maybe it weakens your case, you can do an objection for to move on to to ask them about something else. And also once the the witness has provided their reaction, you can uh pressure the witness using this token as well to get more out of them. Um so again, these are limited tokens that you've play in the round. So you've got to kind of play them when you think you're gonna need them. So once you've done that, you've gathered all that information, um, you get to the argument um phase, which is basically uh the end where you're gonna do a speech, you're gonna uh produce a speech in front of uh the other team, and they're gonna have someone reviewing um the speech that you've made and ticking off the things that you've covered, which is gonna generate your VPs um for the game if you covered certain aspects, and then you're gonna do it uh for the for the reverse as well. So you kind of get five minutes apiece. And it does say that if you're not comfortable about doing um speeches in front of people, you can write it down and do it that way, but just allow for a bit longer time. And the reason why it's on my list is it's unique. It just I don't think I've ever seen a game like this. I mean, being a kind of lawyer or in a um kind of you know criminal court um environment is not really many board games as a speciality. Um and the fact that this is doing something quite new, I'm intrigued to see actually how it works um and and just yeah, experiencing. And I tend to not these tend don't tend to be my sorts of games, but because it's a bit more gamified, I'm more interested in in kind of going through this. So yeah, we'll see how it goes. Um it's it's there on the list, and and that's what we're gonna do.

11. -60 Below

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So that's number 12. So number 11 is uh 60 below by Nanox Games and designed by Alexander Fista. So the reason why this is on my list, if I'm being honest with you, is exact Alexander Fister games are are are some of my faves. I I've got you know Sky Mines and I love Maracaibo and Pirates of Maracaibo and things like that. And yeah, I really like his designs. I think they're quite interesting. So this one's all based in like a 1970s um expedition to Antarctica where a meteor has landed, and you're trying to rush to get to this, the the impact site, um, before uh everyone else does. And and effectively, mechanically, I think it's all kind of revolving around this deck um of cards or your expedition cards, um, which is going to mixture of storm and expedition cards, and you you are gonna shuffle that up and draw so many, and you're gonna be playing those cards into your tableau, uh, whether they're expedition uh bits of equipment that's gonna help you, or whether they're storm bits that are gonna help you in different areas. Again, I don't know all of this. Um, this is kind of what I've I've picked up, but you're gonna have explorers, you're gonna be planning to go out on this hexagonal map, um, looking like you're gonna uncover more spaces and effectively you know activating those spaces on on the map and uh building stations, upgrading stations, using radars. And again, it just looks very, very euro-y, um, if that's a word, euro-y, uh, and very crunchy, um, which is typically what I'd expect from an Alexander Fista game. Um, but I think the theme's pretty cool. I quite like the Antarctica theme. I like the fact it's in the 1970s, so it's got a kind of uh uh uh art style to it that's kind of unique. Um, and yeah, without me learning this, which I haven't, I want to try and um but yeah, basically learn more about this and hopefully get a demo um whilst I'm out there. But yeah, 60 below looks quite cool. I'm I'm intrigued to learn more.

10. Timespan

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Number 10. Number 10 is time span from uh Alliung Games. Now, time span looks like if you just look at it and probably look at maybe read the back, you think, oh, it's like seven wonders. And you go through three ages and you're gonna score as many VPs as possible. And you think, oh, it's like seven wonders, but it's it's it's kind of not. So effectively, you are um you're gonna draft cards and tiles, um, kind of in in you know in a drafting sequence, and the cards you're gonna get into to your hand, and the tiles are gonna give you immediate resources and things, and you're playing cards into your timeline. So the timeline acts like a conveyor belt on your player board, and when you play a card, it goes in on the left and it pushes everything down to the right to the point where cards will eventually be lost to time and they they will go. Um, but the cards are like worker placement spots where you can go and activate and and effectively get stuff and upgrade stuff and do stuff um in in the game. And it's got a nice little resource tracker, and I think you've got like these eight cubes that sit on the right, and you put a cube on the resource that says you've got a thing. And if you want to upgrade them, you can effectively take uh a good of that level to upgrade another good of that level up one tier, and so on and so forth. And and again, you can kind of manipulate the resources to do all the different sorts of things uh as you get better and better in the game. Uh, as I said, you've got three eras. You've got era one, era two, and era three, and I think there's some era four cards that like futuristic, things like Dream Recorder and Space Walking and you know all that kind of stuff. And and it's a game that plays very quick. It's it plays in 90 minutes, and I think there's a lot of simultaneous play, which does mean that everyone needs to know how to play the game, of course. But there's a lot of simultaneous play, and yeah, you can basically all do a lot of things at the same time, which is quite nice. I think it keeps the game moving along, and also you can upgrade those cards, um, put luxury goods on them, um, which means that when you you activate them with your workers, they're gonna give you more. But as the as the card comes off with that luxury good, that turns into like an income uh token, which then's gonna give you more and more each round as well. So I think it's one of those games that's gonna start with, oh, I didn't really get a lot done in the first era, to the thing at the end where it's just gonna be exploding on combos and different things, and you've got a bunch of tracks on the main board that you're racing up with the other players, whether that's uh the peace track, which helps, I think, with turn order. Um, there's no war in this, it's very much we're trying to be peaceful. Um, there's like the air track, there's uh some boats in there, there's I think even the space track eventually that you get uh go up. So all of these things are going to give you bonuses you get up there. You want to be other top as well to get the most VPs. But I like the look of it. I think it's uh pretty cool. I love the fact it plays in 90 minutes, and if it's giving me a lot of crunch, I definitely want to check that out and maybe pick that one up.

9. Carpet Racers

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Okay, number nine. Number nine is Carpet Racers by Pink Troubadour and designed by Thomas uh Hollock. And Thomas uh Hollock is a design that's probably gonna come up um a number of times in Last Essence. Thomas pretty much designed three games and released them uh at Essen Spehill, and it was just like loads and loads of thipping. Oh, was it the year before? I think it was the year before. Yeah, it was it was the year before because he did SETI, he did Galileo Galilei and Tea Gardens, I think. Don't quote me on that, but there's there's three games they did. It was, it was 2024. Um, so yeah, he's ever since then he's been a well-known um um yeah, basically designer, and his SETI is just blown up for you know Czech Games Editions uh SETI is just yeah, it's a fantastic game, and it's uh yeah, he's just uh a name that's been put on the map. So Carpet Racers isn't what I would have thought he would have done. Like this game looks like you're playing radio controlled cars racing them around the living room, and effectively that's the theme. Um, and it it kind of reminds me of like maybe this this is sort of game I might have designed when I was a kid, but obviously that would have been awful because I'm no game designer. Um, but the the whole premise of the game is that there are five cars on the track. All right, there's all I think there's always five cars on the track, and you are operating one of those cars. The rub of the game is you don't know which one. So you have this little mini player board that looks like a controller for an RC or a radio control car, and in there it says you are the red one or the the yellow one or whatever, but you don't know that. Um so what you've got is a bunch of cards that you're gonna play, which are multi-purpose, and when you play that card, it's got movement points on there. So let's say it's got four movement points, and you can effectively uh also on the card it will say it's the the yellow and the blue card car. Um, and you can assign those movement points to both of those cars, but they both have to move at least one. So you can say, I'll have move three on the blue and one on the yellow or two and two, whatever. And then you're moving those cars along, not knowing which one's yours, and then you're gonna effectively could put them into a uh a trap token, which we can reveal and do certain things. The tracks have bonuses on the side as well, that's certain spaces. So you want to manipulate the cars to get to the track spaces so you can get a bonus, maybe rush up uh other tracks in the game because you're actually playing the uh the controller colour, even though you're controlling one of the cars, everything on the tracks is denoted by your your controller. Uh so you're gonna go up those those tracks, and throughout the game, you're going to deduce who you are by kind of revealing who other players are. So you can find out actually the player two is I've looked at, oh, you're the red car. Okay, now I know you're the red car. Do you know you're the red car? Um, etc. So I can purposely manipulate the red car into problems. Um, and also, now I know that I'm not red, so I don't really want to focus on on advancing them. Because again, this is a race, you run around three laps when the car gets over the third lap, the game ends. So I just thought social deduction in a little racing game looks very interesting. And it's off the box itself, I probably wouldn't have been bothered. Um, you know, if I'd not known Thomas has designed this, I probably wouldn't have been bothered. But now I've looked into it, I actually think this could be a lot of fun. And again, plays hopefully fairly quickly under two hours. And yeah, I'm I'm really can't wait to play this one. I think it'd be a good one to play um, you know, during the Essen in the hotel at night. Probably lots of squaring and all that kind of stuff. So so there we go.

8. Forestry: Growing Further

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Um, number eight is an expansion to a game I picked up last year in Last Essence, which is uh Forestry Growing Further, another pink troubadour um game. And forestry is a game where uh effectively you are harvesting um trees and you're putting them through the sawmills and you're fulfilling contracts uh to make manufactured goods out of wood. And it again, it does probably have not made that sound really interesting, but the way the the game works is that you spend action points and doing a bunch of stuff, and you can buy more action points using money, and mechanically, this game is a lot of fun, like the the player board that you have is you know, you're collecting stars that advance around this this loop, and when you go around there, you're leveling up your experience, and the things you're doing on the player board is so much fun. And this is just playing the base um standard um symmetrical sides, and the game comes with uh four different asymmetrical kind of characters that you can play that all work in the forest and do different things, and everyone plays so differently, have a different um bunch of tokens that adds more rules and uh fun games there. But this is the expansion to it, and I'm looking forward to this because it's adding um um basically a bunch of modules to the game to probably give it a little bit more crunch, which I I always enjoy. So it has a bark beetle infestation module, which is easy for me to say, um, and it adds a wrinkle into that production where if you've got um an infestation token on the map, you have to harvest that out and treat that first before you can harvest the tree. So it's just adding another step to the production line. Um, but you can kind of get those uh infested uh bark uh delivered to detached storages, which I think are around the edges of the circular, the main board, and and they'll grant you rewards and end game scoring for you doing that. Um, you've got also new location tiles now on the map. There's lakes, there's tree nurseries as a lookout tower, and effectively there are new resources in the game that you can get um that which contributes to these new tiles that allows you to kind of get involved in these things so you can build up the the lookout tower, or you can uh sample the water in the lake and so on and so forth, and you can yeah, basically nurse the trees. Um, and you've got a little van and you can carry additional um of these these new resources to help you as well because on the main board you've got your little harvester truck that goes around, um, and you get more asymmetric characters, and you get a couple more, which is the forest worker and the forest road manager. And again, I don't know how they work, but I love the fact there's more asymmetry in the game. Um, and forestry is a game I need to play more. When I play it, I'm always impressed how quick it is. The game it gives you a lot of game for for not a lot of uh yeah of your time, and it's a game I need to play more. So uh I want to get this expansion, I want to play it more, I want to do more things. So there we go. That's forestry growing

7. Chivalry

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further. All right, we're getting there. Number seven is a game I know nothing about. Um, it's chivalry uh by DLP Games. Now, Chivalry is designed by David Tursey, so naturally I'm ding, I'm interested to see what it's about. Um, it's set in the Arthuri Arthurians time, so King Arthur and the court of Camelot. I think you manage your nights, you go around the lands, you're you're gonna be basically doing actions where they're out uh and and the map in towns, you're gonna visit countrysides, ports, even go to do you know the Camelot and the feast, um, and yeah, and you camp at night. I really don't know much about this game other than what's on the summary of Board Game Geek. They're keeping this quite secretive in terms of what's there. The images, I've not seen many. I'm just intrigued that it's it's uh David Turtsy design, and he's usually uh very tuned into my gaming tastes, so I will be checking this out. Um, but I can't really share much more other than I want to check it out.

6. Hegemony: Shadows of Authority

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Number six is uh hegemony shadows of authority. So this keeps coming up. This keeps coming up on my lists. Um it came up on my UK Games Expo list um because I was chatting to to the team at Hegemonic uh Project Games about it, and it just got me excited. And I think I think we're gonna be able to get a demo. I think, I hope we get a demo of this uh Essen, and effectively I think it comes with a board extension, or at least they they talked about doing that. Um, it adds a new uh ideological axis. Uh, I think it's authoritarianism and versus liberty, probably said it wrong. Um, but it's just another concept that they're gonna throw in. We're gonna be dealing with more environmental concerns, we're gonna be dealing with pollution, we're gonna be dealing with crime and bribery and all these kind of things, whether you're you're pushing to to do that for your own ill gotten gains, or whether you're gonna get punished by that. Um Yeah, but hegemony is hegemony, it's just a fantastic experience. And to to kind of layer in a little bit more, um, I think we're very excited, and I'm hoping to get that demo. I'm hoping to play it and learn more. And uh yeah, hopefully doing some sort of collaboration on that soon, but I'll I'll keep that to myself. Um, but yeah, that's uh hegemony shadows of authority.

5. Carl von Linne

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Number five, number five is uh Carl von Linne again by Pink Troubadour. So Pink Troubadour, I've got three games on my list. So they're doing uh something that is is interesting me or pulling me. So they're definitely gonna be on my hit list uh to go and visit and and see. But yeah, Carl von Linne. I've actually watched the playthrough on uh gaming rules, um which Paul did. And again, I probably wouldn't even look to looked at this, but I watched uh a little bit of that playthrough and I really liked kind of what the game was was doing. And it kind of looks like a spiritual successor to Galileo Galilei. Um, in terms of what the box art looks like, you could literally put them next to each other, they would look pretty similar. Um, but I think the board's kind of split into a um kind of section where you've got a map section, I think it could be Scandinavia, um, where you've got different little nodes that you can kind of wander around and explore. And the idea is you're collecting and researching specimens um to basically catalogue and organise these creatures or flora and fauna around the uh the the world. Um you can cultivate botanical gardens. So there's a little uh Tetrisy polyomino um aspect to the game in the middle of the board as well, and then there's kind of a building knowledge and reputation aspects on the right-hand side. So the board's kind of like a long, uh thin board, much like Galileo Galilei, which still haven't played and I'd like to. Um but what's quite fun is the lens, the lens system, the action selection system. So you've got a bunch of lenses at the bottom, which all are the different actions in the game, and where you put them on your player board would determine whether you do them once, twice, or thrice. So you'll put them in your glasses, like literally your eyeglasses, and that you'll do it once. If you put it into, I think it's like a other the binoculars or telescope, can't remember, you do it twice. And then if you put it into your microscope, you get to do it three times. Now, if it's in your microscope, it means you're not gonna get access to that action until uh the next round when you push it out because it locks it in. So that adds a little wrinkle in there. Um, but it looks like good Euro fun. Like you're doing stuff, you're collecting stuff, you're doing sets, you're you're trying to it's it's one of those games where you can't do everything and you're gonna be doing bits of things to score points. And I quite like games like that. So I'm looking forward to to learning more about that one.

4. Drillers

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Okay, we're into the top four. So in fourth place is Drillers by Czech Games Edition. Now, I've been kind of wanting to play Drillers for uh a long while. Again, saw it at the UK Games Expo. It's a Gen Con release. So lots of people have already got their copies at home and they've already played it. So this is not going to be any new news. But to me, I've not played it yet. And I've been waiting to Essen actually. I've been waiting to get to Essen. I'm gonna get a copy uh as well. Thank you to Czech Games Edition, and I just like the look of it. It's kind of like this very cutesy, futuristic um kind of world where people have converted like these planes or or trams and boats into these big mechanized drilling machines, and then you've got your main board, which is this kind of vertical layer, where you're gonna be going down and down and down to drill for better and better riches and gems. And I think it's kind of a push-your look because you're trying not to run out of fuel, trying to drill as much as you can and get it all back to the top so you can basically sell them and improve your your cards. So your deck, and it's a deck building game as well. And I think the unique thing is you're always gonna know what the the next card is that you're gonna draw because it's it's literally open information, and yeah, and they're multi-purpose cards, you can bin them off of fuel, or you can spend them for actions. And and again, I quite like the the look and and the play of this, and again, if it's not too long and it lasts under that two-hour mark, I think this could be uh pretty, pretty special. But a lot of people are enjoying it. A lot of people are are yeah, basically enjoying their experiences and play of drillers, and uh I can't wait to give it a will. So that's number four.

3. Deckers: Duplicity

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Then we go to number three, which is Deckers uh expansion duplicity. I love Deckers. Deckers is one of my favourite solo board games of all time. Um, it's just such a a great puzzle where you you play as this cyberpunk hacker, where they're called Deckers, and you're basically trying to infiltrate a supermassive computer or an SMC, and you're you're trying to basically bring it down through a series of objectives, and you've got copper, silver, and gold objectives. And it's just bloody brilliant. Like again, it's more deck buildy kind of uh uh aspects to it, where you you get a card and you improve it, and you'll bin one of them off, so you'll always got 10 cards. But the puzzle, man, of where you need to be, what you need to do, pushing programs around, killing other programs off, and trying to get to the state where the the the basic the SMC is pushing against you, it's just fantastic. And I have played this four player. That last S and I played at four player, and it's too much. Like, I don't think I'd play four player uh again. Two player is great, and solo is fantastic. So this expansion I think adds more stuff. It's uh gonna give you new SMCs, and with the duplicity name in the frame, they're gonna be flippable cards. So an SMC can start off in one state and then it can end up being in a different state depending on what happens, and you also get more deckers that can flip as well, so they could be more red and more attack programs, more you know, more viruses and things like that, and then they can flip to be more um blue, let's say, and help you move around the board. So I like the fact that you've got different powers and different ways to flip. So deckers, more deckers, yes please. Um, I think is as simplest to say, and I'm I'm really excited about that. Um, so yeah, let's see what happens there.

2. Prague Unseen

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Number two, number two is Prague Unseen. So Prague Unseen, I tried out and did a demo at um UK Games Expo as well. And that game is um from Albi Games, and it's uh what can I say? I really enjoyed my demo. I I got a little taste of this game and I wanted to basically get more. Now, what is it? It's a game, it's a worker placement game, it's on the heavier side, and it's set in this mythical Prague where it's like a steampunk fantasy setting. If you ever watch like Leader League of Legends um uh arcane, uh it's kind of that kind of world, uh basically. And you've got four worker types you've got golems, robots, the horned, like these kind of fantasy demon things, and uh the vodniks, which are like these eccentric like business people. And you're trying to rebuild the flooded um city of Prague, and you've got the the boards kind of broken into four quadrants of the city or four districts, and each district is specialized by one of the four worker types. So, yeah, if you send one of those workers to their specialized district, you can interact with uh the mini game or puzzle that's literally there. So for the golems, you've got this grid where you can move this like super big golem around and get bonuses. You've got one that's like building recipes for um basically constructing different things. You've got another one where it's like a cauldron and uh it's basically spinning um elements around. And yeah, there's just all these different things going on. Um if you don't send the the right worker to that place, you're gonna get other things that you might need for resources to help you do stuff because in your hand you've got these building cards, and you're gonna be wanting to build these buildings into these slots around the edges of the board in the districts because on your turn, when you do your action, you can put your worker down, do the thing, but also you can move one of your workers out of the district into the building and get um more and more stuff. So you've kind of got this evolving worker placement structure where the main board is the main board, but around the edges are all the different variations of different things that you're gonna be wanting to do as well. And in the middle of the um the board is like the river, and you're gonna have your boat that you can kind of push up there, and one of the districts helps to do that. But it's very cool, like the art style is very cool. I love the theming of this game, and um the fact that it was crunchy, and it made me think already just on doing a demo or one round. I was like, Yeah, I need to play this fully, I need to understand and experience the that the whole game. So, yeah, Prague on the scene. I'm I'm really, really uh hoping to get uh my hands on a copy, even if it's a prototype copy soon, so I can give you the full uh flavour of what this game's about.

1. Kingdom Come Deliverance

SPEAKER_00 30:45

So we get to number one, and this might not be any surprise, right? This is probably going to be number one on most people's list, um, and it is Kingdom Come Deliverance by Czech Games Edition. Now, this game is designed by Thomas Hollock and uh Vlada Shuttle, and basically it's uh it's an epic beast. Now I knew about this game before it was announced, so I was quite privileged to be honest. I I went to the the um the the retreat in uh the Netherlands earlier in the year and I saw it being played, and saw David Tertsey and I saw uh Paul Grogan and uh and others playing this game in its prototype form. It doesn't or it didn't look as good as it does now. Um, and I was like, well, what is what's going on over there? What's all that about? And I kind of stood watching some plays and it just looked like this absolutely epic game of of stuff that's happening. But effectively, if you don't know anything about the game, it's based off a video game IP, which I haven't played because I don't really play much video games these days. And yeah, you are playing as like this peasant in this medieval town, and you've got five days, I believe, to basically fulfill these different quest lines and generate as many VPs as possible. But it's like a sandbox, it's like here you go, do what you want. What do you want to do? And you're like, Oh, well, maybe I'll go and pick some flowers um and deliver them to uh this this lady in the village, and off I go. But then I'm you know on my way, I might run into some trouble when someone tries to rob me, or I might get side quested and and distracted to go off. Actually, maybe I need to go and get a better bow so I can go and hunt, so I can get more pelts and sell those. And and again, it's very I love the theme of of this medieval world, and the the art style of the map and the board looks fantastic, and the fact that you're gonna get cards into your deck as well. Again, another deck builder, everything seems to be deck builders. Um, but you're gonna get more cards that you can kind of spec into doing different things, and yeah, it just looks like this sprawling adventure where in the day you're trying to go out and do things in the night, you're trying to make sure you've got somewhere to rest and you're doing um tests on whether you're successful on things. If you walk through a muddy field, you're gonna get mud all over yourself and on your equipment and your clothes, you're gonna need to wash that off. And again, just the way the the world reacts to you and what you're doing, it just looks freaking awesome to be honest. And this is quite a pricey game. Um, I think they've been doing it pre-order and they've not really released a lot of information about it. I know there's been some videos um with the designer playthrough, and I think um Paul Grogan did a good like preview overview video. So you haven't checked that out, you should definitely watch it. Um, but there hasn't been a lot of full playthroughs, and and it's a bit of a different um kind of plan, I would say, from Check Games Edition. Normally their games are are well publicised, they're they're distributed out and and everyone kind of gets their hands on. But this one has been kind of kept behind closed doors, but I'm intrigued by it, and having seen you know, people I respect and they're you know in the design community really rate this game, um just gets me more excited for it. Now, I said on a previous episode that I um didn't get on my mage night, right? And a lot of people you know give me a lot of crap for it, which is probably right, because I know it's a great game. But I'm thinking my only worry with this, I think, is that do I get that same um feeling? Will I play it and go, actually, I don't think this is for me. Um, but I don't know, there's something that attracts me more to Kingdom Come Deliverance than than Mage Knight. I like the theme of this, and I don't even know if they're remotely the same game. I don't think they are, I think they're they're mechanically very different. Um, so yeah, so that's pretty much um my my list, really. I'm looking forward to that. I'm definitely getting a copy of it and picking it up uh at Essen. So I'll be bringing it back for some playthroughs in probably late October, early November. So on an upcoming episode, I'll be able to talk more about all of this stuff. And uh yeah, but there we go. But that's my list, guys. Uh that's what I've gone through, that's why I'm excited. Um, no doubt since recording this, I would have found some more and and probably added it on the list. But I want to know what is on your list. Um, what are the lists um basically that I haven't covered? Yeah, let me know. What what is it? Um do you think I should be checking other games out? For those that know my gaming tastes, um, do you yeah, what do you recommend? What do you recommend to go and see? So that is the end of that that kind of main segment, um, which is yeah, basically the the center of the table. And because this is a special SM preview episode, I'm gonna skip the uh just played section, uh, mainly because I'll be here all night and uh we want to kind of keep the episode moving. So

PHASE C: JUST ASK

SPEAKER_00 35:35

let's move it on. So now we get into the next segment, which is called Just Asking, where I cover a uh listener question who has commented either through a variety of channels of social media, YouTube, or in our Discord. Um so Brian Rowe from YouTube has said, love that I'm repping the 1980s movies, basically all of these, right? Um, and he wants to know which ones made it on the wall and what's hanging up um basically near them. Um so effectively I'm gonna list out what these are because you'll probably work out what most of these are, but I'm gonna list them just so that you know, whoever's watching, what these films are. And the whole reason why I've got movie posters behind me is actually came from my other office that I had in uh before I moved house. And effectively, um, you know, I I'm I'm a big lover of the 1980s, and I wanted to pick like movie posters that look good. And there's some movies on here, um, uh some movies that aren't on here, should I say, that I just didn't put on, even though I absolutely adore them. Aliens is one, like Aliens, the second, the sequel, it's one of my favourite ever films. I didn't put the movie post on there because the movie post is quite dull. It's literally the word aliens and there's nothing else on it. Um, I like the the posters that look cool or look like there's some sort of art, so that's why. But I'm gonna list them. So you've got Gremlins, Who Frame Roger Rabbit, E.T. The Breakfast Club, Top Gun, Empire Strikes Back, Total Recall, Back to the Future, of course, it's a classic, Ghostbusters, The Thing, uh, Raiders of the Lost Star, Terminator, Scarface, love Scarface, Fletch. Fletch is a weird one. Fletch is my guilty pleasure. Uh Chevy Chase, love it, I love that film. Uh Goonies, Dirty Dancing is on there, right? It's a chick flick, and I had to rep um the ladies. I had to rep my wife. She said, You've got to put some of mine in there. That is one of them. Uh, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Die Hard, Blade Runner, and Cocktail, another one of my wife's favorite films. So, yeah, that's my list of 20 um uh films there. And this here, ugh, there he is. That someone had asked Zach had asked what this is. And if I'm just gonna go and get it, this is uh the key from Goonies. So now probably it's up close, you can kind of see it. Look, if I do that, you can actually see my face for it. Um, yeah, this is the key from Goonies that they used uh to unlock uh at some point for the film. It's been a while since I see it, but that is pretty much what that is. And the map is the map that they find in the attic or the replica. I don't think it's the one they used in in the actual film, but there we go. So that's just asking. So there you go, Brian. So that hopefully that kind of answers the question. And uh yeah, I'd love more film posters in here. Um, but I am running out of space and maybe I need to refresh them. So maybe I need to change them around a little bit so that when we're recording, you can kind of see it. But yeah, thanks for the question. If you've got more questions, please uh submit them and yeah, chuck them in uh because we'd like to uh yeah, answer them and kind of get through all that kind of stuff. So thank you very much.

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

SPEAKER_00 38:38

Okay, so the next segment is what's hot, what's not. So we're gonna go over to Board Game Geek and see what's on the hotness scale today. So cola wars is number one. I'm actually gonna jump into Cola Wars. Um, and wow, it's already got a 4.5, and I'm not even sure if it's out yet. I know nothing about this game, it's kind of a set in the 1980s, which I'm gonna like, but um real world strategy um board game of Cola Wars. So what Pepsi versus Coke and all that kind of stuff. I have no idea what this is. I've not really heard much about it. Um, it looks like you're gonna make Coke uh as in the drink, uh, obviously. And then yeah, I've no idea. I'm gonna be honest, it's probably doesn't it doesn't grab me as a as a game um theme. Um, but never say never, who knows? I know nothing about that one. Time span. I've already talked about that in my SM preview list. This is getting some buzz, which is great because it does look cool. Um I'll just quickly jump in for those. Um watching on YouTube, uh, yeah, you can kind of see the main board as I was explaining earlier. Um, there you go, you've got the the different kind of civilizations you can play, which I didn't actually mention. You've got a civilization you can play, and then their their kind of technology uh pairing, so you can kind of yeah, do different pairings in the game to give you more and more different things. So yeah, it looks pretty, pretty cool. Um, so again, time span is number two. Hellas is uh yeah, I've not heard of that, this one either, but Hellas 480 BC, rise of the classic Greek civilization. I mean, I like I like that kind of theme, to be honest. Um, it's got like a rebirth, you look though, isn't it? And with the hexagonal grid, and you're building little wooden buildings, and yeah, um basically don't know anything about this. I'll have to check this one out in a bit more detail. Uh again, if you know, let me know if I should be checking this one out. Um, but yeah, don't know much about that one. Moving on to number four, Magical Athlete. I already explained that. It's been um one of the games I own. I I adore this, I should hate it, but I get why it's on here. And I think the sequel has been released, not released, uh announced. And I think it might be why this is pushing the the original. Let's have a quick look on expansions. Uh expansions. No, can't see it. But there is an expansion coming um for for this game, and it's gonna basically double up the number of races, it's gonna give you the uh another board for the track. So you've actually then got four tracks you can race and even more crazy combos that you can mix in. Um, and I'm looking forward to that because my family adore this game. It's my it's my go-to family game. Dino battle. Uh, I think it's by uh Rebellion Unplugged from memory. Yes, it is. And you're gonna pitch uh Dino riders together in a big hexagonal grid and and they're gonna juke it out. Uh it just looks fun actually. Um, I mean, I like the theme of just dinosaurs. It reminds me of uh uh God, was it a video game where you used to put dinosaurs and fight each other? Was it Primal Rage? Something like that. And you had Raptors versus T-Rex, and it was literally a fighting game. It's obviously nothing like that, but it's um yeah, you probably just lots of dinosaurs having a scrap with dice chucking, and you know what? Looks a bit of fun, doesn't it? So, yeah, those are the uh the what's hot, what's not. So some of these I have never heard of, but that's the whole point of this section, right? Is to to kind of learn a little bit more about what's going on to the uh the hotness level

PHASE E: JUST ABOUT TO PLAY

SPEAKER_00 42:17

and why. So, next segment is going to be just about to play, and the main one that I'm excited, obviously I'm excited for Essen, because it's like an Essen preview episode. Um, but I'm really excited to play Too Many Bones again. And why is that? Because ever since I got the newest character delivered, I don't know, about two, three months ago, it's called Trover. And Trover is a kobold, which actually normally you play as Gearlocks in Too Many Bones, which are these gremlin-like uh creatures, these goblin-y esque creatures. And Trover is like the fan of the Gearlocks, he literally is like uh their biggest number one fan, and he uses all the tyrant dice um in in the game. So the ones that aren't playing. So if you play uh a tyrant like um, I don't know, Drellin, who's the the big poison bog creature, every other tyrant that you have, you can take their dice and put them into this bag, and then part of your skill development is you're drawing tyrant dice that you're gonna put into your your kind of mat and they're gonna do different things uh for Trover, which is pretty cool. And he actually injects the cooldown track, which I think they call it the heat up track, um, into the Too Many Bones characters from uh Elder Scrolls. So it's pretty much a similar uh kind of character to kind of how that works. So yeah, I'm looking forward to playing that. We've got a like a learning game coming up. Um so I'm gonna teach some friends of mine who have never played it before. So yeah. But talking Too Many Bones, um, they've also announced Chip Theory games have also announced Too Little Times, like a Too Many Bones sequel game. I am super hyped for this. I cannot wait for this. Um, because you know, Too Many Bones is probably my favorite game uh of all time, it's the one I've definitely played the most. And to to get like a sequel game um on in this universe, that's not the same game, it's not replacing the original game, um, but is gonna be yeah, kind of giving me more of this this universe, this wacky crazy universe. I'm all for it. And I think it's coming to Game Found in late October, and um, I'm gonna be all over it. I'm not gonna lie. So looking forward to learning more. I watched their live stream, uh, which is you know 90 minutes long, it kind of explained lots of different aspects of what the different game is, but also they kept a lot to themselves because chip theory games are uh a little bit naughty in that respect, but we love them for it anyway. So, yeah, too little time, cannot

PHASE F: THE LAST PLAY

SPEAKER_00 44:36

wait. And then we get to the last segment, which is the last play. And uh, as always, uh, if you've enjoyed the show, um please like, please subscribe, please review um if you aren't the podcast players. Uh every review uh helps, and I'd love to get your feedback on the show and how we can improve it and how we can make it better for you. Um, but yeah, if you really like the show, please do all the likes, the comments, uh, the sharing, uh getting engaged. I love reading the comments on on YouTube. I love reading comments on Facebook and Instagram. And uh yeah, I always try and um reply and interact with you guys as best as I can. And uh yeah, please keep them coming. If you want to support the show financially and you enjoy what I do, um I have coffee and you can basically a few quid here or there really helps keep the show going. It keeps help uh the show flowing and and basically keeps this thing running. This this these things aren't uh free, as I keep saying, uh, and any any every little helps. And I really appreciate those that do your legends and you're lawsome. Um, so thank you for listening. I really appreciate it, and I'll end on the usual note, which is you're only gonna award when you stop playing. Take care, and I'll see you in Essen. Bye bye.