0:11

Hello, and welcome to the Shutup and

0:13

Sit Down Podcast. The podcast of all of

0:15

our board games board games and the

0:17

people who love board games. And it's a

0:19

new year. It's twenty twenty three,

0:21

and we're still doing this. Can

0:24

you believe

0:25

it? Tom, I'm joined today by my

0:27

Fred Quintin Smith. Who has apparently forgotten

0:29

how to podcast and just wants to interrupt all the time?

0:31

And I'm joined by Tom Brewster. Tom, do

0:33

you still love board games in the year twenty twenty

0:35

three? Yes. I do.

0:38

My love of board games was testing. Pretty

0:40

thoroughly over the festive period

0:43

because my family was sort of collectively,

0:45

you know, what asked me to bring games

0:48

to them. They're like, oh, let's play a game.

0:50

And then the game of choice that they were sort of

0:52

obsessed with over Christmas was BBC's

0:55

or ITV's The Wheel, The Board

0:57

game. Which is as

0:59

far as I can understand it, like a game show where

1:01

Michael McEntire straps celebrities onto

1:04

a giant wheel and spins them around whilst asking

1:06

them trivia

1:06

questions. And how does the board game? Presumably,

1:09

the board game really aces the the trivia

1:11

part of that of that conce conceit.

1:13

It was good. Yeah. No. It really manages

1:15

the trivia. It doesn't quite manage the

1:17

locomotion. I don't know what I

1:19

would give it out of ten. Maybe sort

1:21

of a week four. It

1:25

was baffling that game. It gave me like a

1:27

sort of a new appreciation for

1:29

the amount of work that goes

1:30

into, you know, like, actual board game.

1:32

Design the board games. Yeah. Because because the

1:34

wheel, the board game had a thing in which so you'd answer

1:36

a trivia question. And then if you got that trivia

1:39

question right, you just answer another trivia

1:41

question. And so on so forth until you

1:43

win the game, until you get one

1:44

wrong. And so the second

1:46

team only got about maybe two turns

1:48

in the whole of the game because sounds like

1:50

they dodged a bullet judging from the

1:53

design of this particular game. Do

1:55

you enjoy trivia? Yes.

1:57

But only in areas that I actually like like,

1:59

I think. What areas do you like? Music

2:03

trivia -- Yeah. -- bored games

2:05

trivia. Trivia. Yeah. Okay. 0GD0

2:08

games and trivia. Wow.

2:10

You're living a real full and rich life.

2:13

I played Don't Get Gout

2:15

with my niece and Nephew on Christmas Day. Nice.

2:18

Yep. And I'll tell you what, Tom. It's like

2:20

taking candy from a baby. They just it

2:23

was like, you know, watching, you know,

2:25

like, Mamad Ali eight

2:27

rounds with, you know, a turtle or something.

2:29

It was just a Yeah. Yeah.

2:31

Like, you know, one of my missions was get

2:33

someone to correct your mask. Do you know how

2:35

easy that is with the ten year old? I

2:39

They couldn't wait to correct my mask. The actually,

2:41

honestly, the worst thing about playing dog get got with my

2:43

niece and nephew was the way they would seem genuinely

2:45

stressful and when they got got. But

2:47

but you didn't let that take away from your victory.

2:49

I you. You still sort of like did the sort of

2:51

you went like and like

2:53

flexed on them. But the rule about being

2:55

a cool on call is that you just never

2:58

hold back at any

2:58

point. You treat you treat them like an

3:00

adult. Yeah. And, you know, if that means, like,

3:02

duplexing them onto the sofa because they,

3:04

you know, dead to look at you

3:06

funny, then -- Yeah. That

3:08

means getting them to cry over a board game.

3:11

It's worth it. Yeah.

3:12

No. That's a lesson. They will always if

3:14

you're making me feel bad, I feel like I'm losing

3:16

the using the sympathy

3:18

of the listener. So, Tom, would you like to describe the

3:20

board games we're gonna be talking about on this podcast?

3:23

On this podcast, we're gonna be talking about

3:25

three entire games. We're gonna be

3:27

talking about Ginkgopolis, a

3:29

game so abstract and strange

3:31

that I don't even know how Quinn's is really gonna

3:34

get his teeth into it. We're gonna be talking

3:36

about the wolves, a game about managing

3:38

a rowdy pack of feline.

3:40

They're not feline. What is the wolf? Lupine.

3:43

Lupine Buddies who

3:45

are gonna go around a map and do some area

3:47

control on it, and we're gonna talk about

3:49

the search for lost species. A,

3:52

spiritual successor or just

3:54

the straight up successor to the Search for

3:56

Planet X, which was a game about finding

3:58

a planet, but this one's about finding

4:00

a rat. Tom, I'll tell you right

4:02

now. I'm really excited to talk about that third game

4:04

to search for lost species. Let's just,

4:06

like, speedrun through the rest of the podcast so we can

4:08

get to that. I don't wanna talk about these two

4:10

games. Well,

4:13

Quinn's, you have to. We've made it through

4:15

the sting and we're into the sort of wild

4:17

abandon of our chat about Ginkgopolis.

4:19

This is on the record. You have to muster

4:21

some enthusiasm. You have to get the listener

4:23

on-site. Okay. Here we go.

4:25

Honestly, I like a

4:27

lot and I think Tom You're being mean,

4:29

but I think you liked Ginkgopolis as

4:31

well. Didn't

4:31

you? I I did like I are

4:34

we calling it Ginkgo Polis or Ginkgo Polis?

4:36

It's Ginkgo Polis, isn't

4:37

it? But it's French, so Ginkgopolis.

4:39

Ginkgo Bali? There's

4:42

probably as accurate as you're gonna get. So,

4:44

yeah, this is published by Pearl Games

4:46

and designed by Xavier Georges. Who

4:48

is the designer between a couple

4:50

of shut up and sit down favorites?

4:54

The absolutely terrific now

4:56

getting on a bit in years' nice game, but, you know,

4:58

is still fighting fit for that. And

5:01

then Kainiki, which is a

5:03

more recent release about the American

5:05

man Kanegi. And

5:07

he did some capitalism

5:09

in America, and now you can experience that

5:11

capitalism in a board game. How would you describe

5:13

Carnegie? You played it more than I did? It's kind

5:15

of about building an office. It

5:17

is, isn't it? And then men fall over and get

5:19

really tired in that office. Yes.

5:21

Exactly. You have to sort of cart around

5:24

some sleepy men between floors of an

5:26

office and make them do capitalism. Yeah.

5:28

I quite enjoyed it. It's good.

5:31

Okay. But Ginkgo Pattice, Ginkgo Pattice, or

5:33

Ginkgopolis, however you'd like to

5:35

to have a stab at pronouncing it. It's a

5:37

two thousand twelve game that's been out of print for

5:39

a long time, and now Pearl Games

5:41

has brought it back. Which is good

5:43

news for everybody because this board game

5:45

is is a good little game, but

5:47

as we've hinted at earlier with this podcast,

5:49

it's also pretty abstract. So

5:51

Here's what you're doing. Ginkgopolis, you

5:53

and your enemies are building

5:56

together a city of the future and

5:59

it's all the art depicts it as like,

6:01

you know, lush and it's kind of solar punk.

6:03

You know, you're building -- Yeah. -- in in coordination

6:05

with like a tree. Everything looks

6:07

like it's made out of some kind of space age material that

6:09

is probably good for the environment, but frankly, it looks

6:11

a lot like plastic. So

6:14

in Ginkgopolis, you've got this grid of tiles

6:16

is the city in the middle of the table that everyone's building.

6:18

And to begin with, this is just a three by three

6:20

grid. So you it's it's a city three long and

6:22

three tall. Then

6:24

on your turn, you everybody will receive

6:26

a hand of cards showing different

6:28

sort of It's

6:30

tricky. Every building in the game is a card

6:32

and then every direction that you

6:34

can sprawl in is also a

6:36

card. So just

6:39

if you Google it, it's way easier than me.

6:41

Hampistically trying to explain how

6:43

this is. Yeah. If you're driving somewhere, just

6:46

get your phone out It's

6:48

fine. Put that steering wheel

6:50

between your knees. Don't you? Especially

6:52

not for a board game because you would be dying

6:54

in the worst. Possible way. With

6:56

it, no one wants to die with ABGG

6:58

page open on their phone in the car for

7:00

the the cops to fish out and look at

7:02

the lake. Wow. This guy was a real doobie. Okay.

7:05

So, yes, in Ginkgo, let's see.

7:07

I had a car to show, like, buildings and directions to

7:09

export it, and you've got three choices you can

7:11

do on your turn. Also, I should stress, It's a

7:13

Bureau game. You're trying to get victory points. So

7:15

your three choices are. You can take a

7:17

card that you don't want other

7:19

players to have and throw it away. You just remove

7:21

it from the game, goes into the discard file. You

7:23

burn that card and you get resources depending

7:25

on what card you throw away. But you don't

7:27

really wanna do that because that's not gonna get your points. The

7:29

things that'll get your points are the two other things you could

7:31

choose to do in your turn. Is taking one of the sort

7:33

of directions that he can draw in. And

7:36

then playing that card and then taking a

7:38

tile from behind your screen, a new building

7:40

and then building in that direction. So if you take

7:42

the a card which sprawls in the a direction,

7:44

honestly, like, really can't stress this enough

7:46

because Google image sets this game to

7:48

play what the hell I'm talking about. And then

7:50

you expand the city in that direction, which gives

7:52

you some resources because it causes all the

7:55

buildings you're building adjacent to give you resources. But

7:57

the Corolla game is playing

7:59

a building card on

8:01

your turn and then placing a tile to build

8:03

vertically on top of that build because

8:06

is a three-dimensional game, everybody.

8:10

When was the last time you played a game in a third dimension?

8:13

I thought that already happened on Star Trek.

8:15

No. Now you can do it, Ginkgopolis. So

8:17

if there's like the red number

8:19

seven building, you could play the red number

8:21

seven card and then play it with the

8:24

twelve blue tile and then you take the twelve

8:26

blue building and place that on top of the red seven.

8:28

The red seven is removed from the game And

8:30

in fact, you take that red seven card

8:32

that no one can access because you've plowed it into the

8:34

firmament of the building you're building on top

8:36

of. And you take that card and it goes in front of you and

8:38

it builds up your engine because as you play

8:40

as you build on top of other buildings, those

8:42

building cards go in front of you and

8:44

will make the other actions more powerful. For

8:46

example, a card might

8:48

say like that red whatever

8:50

number I said, seven. No. That

8:52

red seven building card you've got might say,

8:54

okay, great. Now whenever you

8:57

build vertically on top of another building, get

8:59

a little benefit. You'll get a resource or a time

9:01

or something like that. So

9:03

this this is kind of the game for

9:05

its first third, I would say. It's

9:07

just this funky little engine builder where you're

9:09

building a city together with your friends and really you're trying

9:11

to shrewdly gather as many

9:13

resources in your turn as possible or

9:15

spend those resources to build up your engine

9:17

so that when you ditch cards or spray the sizzie or

9:19

build vertically, you're getting even more benefits.

9:22

And so you'll get, you know, 789 cards in

9:24

front of you, all of which are giving you more

9:26

resources than time do anything very fun, very

9:28

satisfying. But the

9:30

longer the game of Ginkgopolis,

9:33

Ginkgo Polish Ginkgo Polish goes on

9:35

for The more the game

9:37

transforms, and Tom, you and I really quite

9:39

enjoyed the sort of like and trope like

9:41

transformation this game very slowly

9:43

goes through. Oh, yes. Because One

9:45

of the resources you collect is Victory Points, you

9:47

know. So as you're building, you might be getting little

9:49

bits of Victory Points here and there. But

9:51

a big source of Victory Points in this

9:53

game it comes from the fact that at the end

9:55

of the game when you've used all the tiles or

9:57

run out of little resource tokens, you

10:00

look at the board from above and every

10:02

contiguous, what's called a neighborhood. So that's

10:04

big group of contiguous yellow buildings

10:06

or every touching group of red buildings or

10:08

blue buildings. Is gonna be

10:10

giving a ton of victory points to

10:12

whoever has the most whoever built the

10:14

most of it. And buildings

10:16

are worth more, the higher up they go. So, like,

10:18

if you're building third floor because there's two

10:20

buildings below your tile. That's gonna be worth

10:22

three points in terms of your ownership

10:24

of that neighborhood. So

10:27

what starts as a game about generating resources

10:29

and building up your engine slowly becomes

10:32

an area control game. the

10:34

turns get slower because Tom, you and I

10:36

would just play this two players, but we were, by

10:38

the end, really stressing about every

10:40

turn. Like, we would we had not

10:42

even AP, but just long

10:44

bouts of calculation where Because, of

10:46

course, you're not just trying to take control of

10:48

these neighborhoods. By, you know, turning

10:50

a one yellow building and a big yellow district

10:52

into a red building, maybe you've cut the

10:54

neighborhood in half and in doing so also

10:57

expanded the red neighborhood to the right.

10:59

So that's a rough teach

11:01

of Ginkgopolis. Tom, what do

11:03

you think? III

11:05

really like this game. I think it is

11:07

very good. It is very robust. It is

11:09

very abstract and it's very strange. But

11:11

you're completely right that it just transforms

11:13

in such a wonderful way. Where

11:15

early on you're just sort of like gently building

11:17

up a neighborhood, trying to get some footholds

11:19

in the area control, but you're mainly worrying

11:21

about your own personal engine and getting resources

11:24

on a by term basis. But by the

11:26

end, it is just this like,

11:28

it's about trying to

11:30

secure sort of points or like

11:32

footholds in the, like, city that

11:34

you're building where you can't be contested

11:36

because something we didn't mention is that you can

11:38

build over the top of other players'

11:40

buildings and take control of

11:42

that space. But often doing so is gonna

11:44

cost you quite a few resources unless you have

11:46

exactly the right tile for the exact

11:48

right moment. So it's about not

11:50

only are you trying to work out how you can get enough

11:52

resources to pay for an extension, not

11:54

only are you thinking about where you're gonna place

11:56

that extension, but you're also thinking about where

11:58

you can take control from your opponent or where they

12:00

can take control of your

12:02

stuff as well. Yeah. And and

12:04

maybe maybe you because

12:06

you always have that option and you turn to burn a card

12:08

for a resource, you always do have that option. You rather

12:10

than fighting your opponent for something, you

12:13

can just throw away a card they need, oh, because

12:15

that's something we haven't mentioned. This is actually a

12:17

drafting game. Yes. So

12:19

when you receive your hand of cards on Ginkop on

12:21

a turn of Ginkopolis, like think you always

12:23

have four cards to choose from. Mhmm.

12:26

You when you

12:28

spend one of cards, one of one of those cards will

12:30

destroy it for resources, You then take that hand and

12:32

pass it clockwise. And then once you once every

12:34

player who's received the hand from the player on their

12:36

right, they draw one new card into

12:38

their hand. So you are playing a game

12:40

of of card denial where maybe

12:42

you don't wanna get into a huge fight with

12:44

someone, but you will definitely throw away the

12:46

cards so they can't choose to get into a fight

12:48

with you. I really love

12:50

them that, like, sort of, like, filtered

12:52

draft where you're getting, like, one just

12:54

one card is big. Yeah. It's interesting,

12:56

isn't it? I was very excited to see what

12:58

card I would add to each hand each time -- Right. --

13:00

because it transforms that hand. And

13:02

it's unusual as well. Like, I'm so used to

13:04

drafting games being that you get a massive hand

13:06

of like ten cards and you're passing that back

13:08

and forth and it's on you to try and remember

13:10

exactly what's in that hand. But with just four

13:12

cards. You know, it's pretty easy to keep

13:14

track of the cards that people are and

13:16

aren't spending at any given time, or at least

13:18

I'm sure it would be easy on your third

13:20

or fourth game. In our first game,

13:23

simply there is a big hurdle in trying to

13:25

understand what you are meant to do on turn

13:27

one of this game. It's funny. It's

13:29

it's III So getting

13:31

ahead of myself here, but what you're describing

13:33

here of like this is an abstract game and I

13:35

don't quite know what to

13:37

do. Like, you know, in games that are

13:39

genre pieces like, you know, Roland Reits

13:41

or Deck builders. We've played enough of those that

13:43

generally, you know, the shape of the strategy that

13:45

is quite good. For, I don't know, if you're playing

13:47

a worker placement game, you generally know that

13:49

getting more workers is pretty good. So

13:51

when you get faced with a game that's abstract,

13:54

sometimes you can just be like, I don't know how

13:56

I'm supposed to play. You're

13:58

describing that now, having that with the

14:01

next game we're about to discuss the wolves.

14:03

I had it so bad.

14:05

I I could not play the

14:08

wolves at all, and you you

14:10

whipped the whipped the bejesus out of

14:12

me. But you're saying that so did you

14:14

actually find quite tricky to

14:16

to to to sort of understand?

14:18

Yeah. I just think on that on that first

14:21

few sort of on those first few turns when

14:23

you have in your hand a

14:25

bunch of cards that represent tiles,

14:27

but those tiles don't like

14:30

those are the places you're gonna place your

14:32

tiles from behind your screen. And when you

14:34

place a tile onto the board. It's

14:36

gonna bring in a new card into a deck,

14:38

which is gonna get reshuffled and filtered back

14:40

into your hand and like what interacts

14:42

with what at what stage and what even crucially

14:44

is gonna earn you any points.

14:46

Yes. It it's quite soupy to

14:48

start with. It is. I mean, just the fact

14:50

that the three buildings that are giving

14:52

you resources as you build to them.

14:54

Red buildings will give you resources,

14:56

which let essentially construct stuff.

14:58

Blue buildings will give

15:00

you tiles, which are essentially on what you can

15:02

choose to construct, so blueprints essentially.

15:05

But then yellow buildings give you victory

15:07

points and it's it's a

15:09

little funky to be playing a game where

15:11

from turn one, it's like, do you wanna build

15:13

or do you wanna vape? And vape is how you

15:15

win. So that is kind of a

15:17

teasing weird. Like, when I

15:19

mean, always, yeah, victory points are

15:21

good. And just facing players with that decision

15:23

of like, do you want more control about how

15:25

the city gets built? Or do you just want the points that

15:27

win you the game? know -- Yeah.

15:29

-- it's it that that decision

15:31

never gets easier. And it was very

15:33

pleasing that at the end of the game, you'd

15:35

gone fully down that route and I'd gone fully down

15:37

the city route. At the end of the game, it

15:39

was like, oh, how many sort of liquid

15:41

points do you have? How many points do you have on you? And

15:43

I was like, I've got four points and you were like,

15:45

I've got forty two. Yeah. I just kept

15:47

triggering those yellow buildings and kept collecting points, but

15:49

I only just scraped a win over you.

15:51

Mhmm. Yeah. Because I was completely

15:53

laser focused on how can I take over

15:55

your territory? How can I manipulate? You know,

15:57

because you want to build it to the city at

15:59

some point because it gets you more cards.

16:01

Which, you know, improve your engine so that you could do

16:03

some more points. But, necessarily, by

16:05

building into the city, you increase the

16:08

possibility of these like big pools

16:10

of points that people can try and

16:12

capture. It's really engaging. I I think

16:14

it's I think it's honestly really

16:16

good. It's really good. I don't know if we're gonna do

16:18

a video review of it because I don't know if we

16:20

have that much to say about it. It's an abstract Euro

16:22

game that's a bit old and it's just fantastic.

16:25

But yeah, I I had so many great

16:27

moments of it, like, you had

16:30

built those cards that you put in front of you so

16:32

that you get generate little bonuses, whatever you

16:34

take certain actions, was Do you remember that pinch

16:36

point about a third of the way into our game where

16:39

you had in front I realized that because

16:41

of how we were choosing to build over the

16:43

the city, we had just happened to

16:45

have built over all the resource all

16:47

the tiles that Jack give you the resources that

16:49

let you built stuff. Mhmm. And I was looking at the

16:51

board, I do I not have resources? How do I get

16:53

them? Oh my god. We've always eliminated all the ways

16:55

I can get them. And I was about to be like, Tom,

16:57

what are we gonna do? And then I realized that the cards

16:59

you put in front of you that give you benefits from

17:01

doing actions would just giving you resources anyway.

17:03

So this was actually a problem only for me.

17:05

And then suddenly, I had to be like, oh, well, I guess

17:07

I have to build an entire new neighborhood.

17:10

Of these titles that I need in terms of Oh, that's why you

17:12

did that. Yeah. Yeah. Because I otherwise,

17:14

I there was no way to do it. I

17:16

also we this is ever

17:19

lots of games do this. Right? But they're they're

17:21

so hot in Ginkgopolis. Ginkopolis

17:23

gives you these two tokens that you can spend

17:25

at any point during the game.

17:27

To discard the entire hand of cards you've just

17:29

been handed from the player to your right -- Mhmm. -- and

17:31

draw four new cards. So if you're fishing for a

17:33

particular building because you're thinking if

17:35

I get this building, I can build over it and take control

17:38

of this neighborhood. That's great. You can

17:40

pull in your hand. But that is

17:42

such a fantastically

17:44

hard decision because you and I did

17:46

that, and then we didn't get the card we wanted. And

17:48

we realized, we'd just drawn four cards that were really

17:50

good for our opponents, and you're about to

17:52

hand them over. It's pure gambling --

17:55

Yeah. -- in a way that's like, you don't have to do it

17:57

because those tokens give you points at the end if you don't

17:59

spend them. But I love a game

18:01

where it's like, you wanna you wanna have a little

18:03

gamble? Yeah? Yeah. You wanna gamble?

18:05

It's it's it's like a gamble for you.

18:07

It's interesting that you're describing this game in these kinds

18:09

of terms because so my sort of like my

18:11

last note on ginkgo playlist, right, was

18:13

that like I really enjoy it.

18:15

I think it's got this really fantastic blend of like strategy and

18:17

tactics, you know, appraising drafts, you know, trying

18:19

to do this on a long term plan. It also also

18:21

being just very pleasing about this kind

18:24

of like three d space that emerges. You have these sort

18:26

of layers of buildings. And I really like the

18:28

fact that the the art for the tiles is just

18:30

this sort of The

18:32

building number one will

18:34

have sort of a little tiny

18:34

house, and then building twenty will be like a

18:37

massive version of that house that's been added

18:39

to in loads of different ways. It's

18:41

cute. But I wonder if it's like

18:43

too abstract. I

18:45

wonder if it lacks a bit of that drama, a

18:48

bit of spice. So

18:50

speaking about it in terms that are very, like,

18:52

excitable and dramatic, but I didn't

18:54

feel that. And I think that I've

18:56

played Ginkgoabbalist twice now. I played it

18:58

once the last last packs

19:01

unplugged, and I played it once with

19:03

you the other day. And each time I've come

19:05

away from it, I feel like I've listened to like a

19:07

really great lounge jazz

19:09

records or like a really good boss in

19:11

over album, like I've been

19:13

pleased for the last forty minutes.

19:15

But I can't exactly pick out the highs and

19:17

the lows of of that

19:18

experience. I can't pick out the sort of the house

19:21

and the whys. I

19:23

enjoyed myself. Look, I feel you. Like,

19:25

that makes sense, but I'm the but you know

19:27

how decadent you sound. It's like, I spent forty minutes

19:29

in this game, please me, and that's not good

19:31

enough. Look. Look. Look.

19:34

I I think cool. I think people

19:36

should check it out. I'm very glad it's back in

19:38

print. But I think this discussion

19:40

the only way I can respond onto question is

19:42

by talking about the next game in Atlas.

19:44

Okay. I think it's time for that. If you if

19:46

you're good to if you would like to introduce

19:48

people to what the game of the

19:51

wolves is, which is another board game we played recently.

19:53

It's pretty decent. I don't think the wolves is as

19:55

good but I had the exact problem

19:57

you're describing. So would you

19:59

like to describe the wolves to the people at

20:01

home? Yeah. Sure. I can

20:03

describe the wolves. This is a ball game

20:05

from Pandasaurus. It's

20:07

about being some wolves, being a pack of

20:09

wolves. It's designed by Ashwin Kamath

20:11

and Clarence Simpson. And basically,

20:13

the way this works is you've got

20:16

this big Hex based

20:18

map in front of you that's like a sort of

20:20

stretch of land that you're gonna try and

20:22

occupy the best with your pack

20:24

of wolves. You've got these little

20:26

wolf, meeples. Weeples.

20:29

Weeples? Sure. Weeples. That you're

20:31

gonna put onto the board in various

20:33

territories. In an effort to try and control them. And the sort of the

20:35

core mechanic of the wolves is

20:37

really interesting. You've got loads of different actions

20:39

you can take on your turn,

20:41

But the core conceit is that to take one of those

20:43

actions, you need to flip these terrain tiles over

20:45

the top of your player board. You've

20:48

got like six, I think, of these

20:50

oblong tiles. represent a different

20:52

kind of terrain that is also

20:54

represented on the board. So you've

20:56

got like a desert tile and you can see on the

20:58

corners, on the other side of the desert tile, there's a

21:00

forest tile. You've got a

21:02

plains tile and you can see in the corners that on the other

21:04

turn of that plains tile, there's a

21:06

tundra tile, for example. do

21:08

anything in the game, you're gonna need to

21:10

flip those tiles from one side

21:12

to the other that will tell you what

21:14

terrain you could act on. So for example,

21:17

I'm playing the wolves, and I want

21:19

to take a movement action, which means I

21:21

need to flip one of my tiles. But then the

21:23

tile that I'm flipping is what

21:25

terrain I'm moving to. So if I flip a

21:27

desert tile, I have to move my wolves that

21:30

turn to desert tiles.

21:32

And that's kind of the core conceit is that you

21:34

have this spread of these turaintiles. And

21:37

normally, you only have to well, not normally, but for

21:39

movement, you only have to flip one. But to do the

21:41

more interesting actions in the game, you have to flip two or

21:43

three or even four citation

21:46

needed, tiles all at once

21:48

to even take that action. So

21:50

for example, you could do something like constructing a

21:52

layer, which is gonna give you sort

21:54

of some presence in an area

21:56

when you score area majority.

21:58

And construct a layer, you need to flip two

22:01

tiles at once to a different side and you can put

22:03

a layer in that kind of terrain. And

22:05

then to construct a den, which is like a

22:07

layer, but even better, you're

22:09

gonna need to do three tiles at once or

22:11

to convert the little neutral walls that are on

22:13

the board, you're gonna need to convert three at once.

22:15

I don't even know if that's I think. It's not. It's it's It's

22:17

to to build a den is to the

22:19

small one, is to flip two, to build a lair, the

22:21

big one you flip three, but most importantly, to

22:23

dominate another player's wolf,

22:26

because this is the game of dominating an

22:28

enemy wolf -- Yes. -- slip

22:30

three. And I could not do

22:32

that for Taffy. The reason

22:34

you're doing all this is just for area

22:36

control. So at various points in the game, you

22:38

got these tokens that are on each sort of

22:41

rough boundary area of the board, and

22:43

those tokens are gonna score when you reach certain

22:45

points in the game. They're gonna give points to the person

22:47

who has the most wolves and dens and lairs

22:49

in that area. And

22:51

that's kind of it. Like, that's how the game works.

22:53

You do several rounds of area control scoring

22:55

and at the end of the person who has the most

22:57

points wins. It's a very

23:00

straightforward thing. And

23:02

I I found this quite,

23:04

like, easy to pass, I

23:06

guess. I didn't really struggle with it,

23:08

but you would just you get

23:10

your hands. Not sure what you're gonna do with these terrain tiles,

23:12

with these flipping. Right? Okay. You know

23:14

when you're on like a

23:16

really really bad voice over

23:18

IP call and you say something

23:20

and there's a silence, and then four seconds later, you hear the

23:22

other person, but you're speaking at the same time. That

23:24

that delay in communication. That's

23:27

how my brain fell in trying to to

23:29

play this game, where I would

23:31

III would you would I don't know. Like,

23:33

we would both be fighting for control of

23:36

an area. I'd send my wolves in

23:38

and then I'd be like, oh, I should really try

23:40

and dominate one of Tom's wolves.

23:42

How should I do that? And then I I would

23:44

just hear static sixty seconds. And

23:46

then I would hear you say, yeah, I'm dominating one

23:48

of your wolves then yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That

23:50

makes sense because that's what I was I should

23:52

have done. I couldn't like I

23:54

don't know. I was I was

23:56

one step behind you for

23:58

every turn of this game. Like Yeah.

24:01

And don't know. There's a bit of engine building in the walls as well

24:03

to get us. So one of my notes I have written down

24:05

here is it felt a bit

24:07

woefully but not really very woefully.

24:09

Like I agree. I agree. I like, as these

24:11

wolves are very, like, mathematically

24:13

minded. They want to build up their wolf

24:15

engine and dominate wolf area.

24:18

I mean, controlling areas makes sense. You

24:20

you know -- Yeah. -- wolves want to have territory.

24:22

But, like, the amount of arithmetic in

24:24

this game is, like, I don't

24:26

think wolves are set with, like, abacus is being, like, well, the

24:28

lair adds three. Yes. So two

24:31

dogs are two. Is there something we'll

24:33

be about the fact that you sort

24:35

of have to shift which areas you care about. You

24:37

know what? I'm saying this already. I don't think it's

24:39

very weird. That really I want you to finish

24:41

with your sake. Just finish your game's sake. You care

24:43

about one area on one round and

24:46

then a different area on the

24:48

next, and you have

24:50

to be mobile. Being mobile is Wolffy.

24:53

Moving on to this. I

24:55

did really like okay. There were moments

24:57

in this game that fell very Wolffy. Like,

24:59

we would because you know which areas are be scored one after another,

25:01

which is weird in

25:03

in Wolf terms. But I like

25:05

this. I would you know, you and I both might

25:07

start building some dens in of

25:09

big terrain tiles that is gonna be

25:11

scored next. And then I just would realize I

25:13

probably wasn't gonna win this, so

25:15

I would, you know, spend a movement and

25:17

then run three wolves at that tile because that upgraded my

25:19

movement. And it felt very woefully to be like,

25:21

no. We're gonna let the other pack have

25:23

this. We're gonna go somewhere else -- Yeah.

25:25

-- and do that. That felt

25:27

that felt I guess that

25:30

that sort of like territorial, passive

25:32

aggressive kind of like

25:34

you know, there's a bit of standoffishness about the game.

25:36

Right? Yeah. You'll sort of move your

25:38

your troops, your wolves into

25:41

area, and then it kind of realize you're bested,

25:43

and you're skull off to some other

25:45

place to try and get a foothold in there

25:47

instead. Yeah. There there is

25:49

skulking. There is like if you you

25:51

can if if make it so that I don't know if

25:53

I can't sort of get close enough to your wolves to dominate

25:55

them, and then you end up just looking at each

25:57

other from a cross the tile, which

25:59

feels quite lovely. But

26:01

but but my goodness, there's

26:03

so much calculations. Like, there's so many so

26:05

much calculations of movement points and how

26:07

many points you need to dominate.

26:09

And, like, just just return to what you're gonna

26:11

say at the beginning. I couldn't flip my tiles to

26:13

do any of this. Like, I just couldn't --

26:15

Yes. -- IIIII

26:17

did or another note I had here

26:20

is like, Well, I'll I'll

26:22

read exactly what I've written down because I can't read it and speak

26:24

at the same time. But this game is smart

26:26

and clicky and have teeth.

26:28

And I got properly foxed by this

26:30

game, it feels more like

26:32

foxy cunning than wolves. But I guess,

26:34

you know, it has wolves in the, like,

26:36

air control. It's like it's

26:38

confused as to what animal it feels like. I'll

26:40

say that. But yeah, I just couldn't in

26:42

the same way that you're just going with where

26:44

it's like, enjoy the process of it, but can't

26:46

really connect with the strategy. That's how I was with the

26:48

wolves. I could not figure out what was going

26:50

on, and then it was over, and I

26:52

definitely lost. I did find that,

26:54

like, you're right that those it's

26:56

like passing how far you can move and how

26:58

many points you need to dominate and what you need to

27:00

do this that and the the control is like one

27:02

task. And then you also have to do

27:04

this flipping terrain tile task on top of

27:06

it. And that terrain tile thing because all

27:08

the terrain you know, like, your grassland

27:10

train has a rock straight on the other

27:12

side, you not only have to know what

27:14

you're gonna flip this turn to take

27:16

an action, but you're also planning the next

27:18

turn because you know that you're gonna flip that to a

27:20

rock, which means you can match that with an existing rock

27:22

that somewhere else to do another yada yada

27:24

yada. So you sort of have to

27:26

constantly have like, you're, like, cashing

27:28

two turns in your

27:30

brain at once. Did you know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

27:32

Well, like, you were. I wasn't. I

27:34

was looking down at what tiles I had and was

27:36

like, well, I guess I'm doing this bad, dude.

27:38

But like that that notion of

27:40

if if you can do that, And

27:43

and if you count on those two turns in

27:45

your head at once, very, very

27:47

satisfying to be able to be like, I'm gonna do this

27:49

this turn. And that'll roll onto this. And then you have

27:51

to sort of appraise each turn

27:53

sort of one in advance, which

27:55

is really nice. It's very tight and very

27:57

satisfying. But ultimately, I think both of us are in

27:59

the same place with the wolves regardless of how

28:01

much we sort of enjoyed it, which is that I

28:03

don't know if we wanna play it necessarily

28:06

again. Yeah. I I because

28:08

it's not because it's bad. It's it's clearly

28:10

very good and tight and satisfying and

28:12

fun, but like I felt like I

28:14

sort of saw all I needed to see on

28:16

one game. Yeah. I wouldn't say the wolves is very good

28:18

and tight and satisfying. I would say it is good and

28:20

tight and satisfying, but out of the two sort

28:22

of like confusing area control games we've

28:25

got, I would at absolutely recommend. I feel like

28:27

is like, is is very

28:29

strong and the wolves is is merely

28:32

strong. So how

28:34

about that for a statement? Yeah.

28:36

That that was good. That's good. That's very decisive, I

28:38

think. That's very consumer focused. Yeah.

28:40

That will work out. Should we talk about other than the

28:42

final game, which is the one that confused the

28:44

crap out of both of us? goodness. So,

28:46

like, I wanna preface talking about the search

28:48

for lost species by saying that, like, we said

28:50

that the search for planet X felt like an

28:52

exam. I mean, kinda joking. What kind

28:54

of serious? Yeah. The surgical

28:57

matter eggs, is it it it felt like an oh,

28:59

god. Okay. So if the surgical matter eggs

29:01

felt like an exam, the Such

29:03

The Lost Species was an exam that you

29:05

and I both failed in real

29:07

time. It was like the the

29:09

anxiety by the end of our game

29:11

with the for lost species was like

29:13

it was like the two of us looking up from

29:15

our desks at each other and doing that that

29:17

moment of eye contact, like and you'll have to

29:19

beat this time, but of you This

29:21

as well. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. You

29:24

know, the truth? It was the way that, like, it it

29:26

was the way that at the start of the game was like,

29:28

this feels like a test. And by the end, it was

29:30

just complete silence. I was like,

29:32

I felt like the music had stopped at some

29:34

point as well, and it was just us

29:36

heads down, looking at a piece of paper,

29:38

like, quietly screaming. It becomes

29:41

increasingly stressful as well when you're like, oh,

29:43

initially, it's like, oh, this is trickier. That was like, oh, this is

29:45

really hard. And then and the

29:47

silence happened when you and I realized that,

29:49

oh, we both might just

29:51

fail this. Like Yes.

29:53

Okay. So, oh, god. Enough preamble. So

29:55

the surge of planet X was something we did a video

29:57

review on, I think, back in twenty twenty one.

29:59

It was a real surprise from renegade

30:02

games. And and and

30:04

design by. Matthew O'Malley and Ben

30:06

Rossett, a really interesting design. It

30:08

felt very fresh when we played such planet X,

30:10

which is why we chose to do a video review. This

30:12

is a very handsome but slim box

30:14

in which players are going to be doing a

30:16

deduction puzzle together. With not really

30:18

some player interaction, I would say there's like

30:21

marginally more player interaction than there is in a

30:23

Roland. Right? But

30:25

mostly, you are just experiencing this thing

30:27

together. And what the search panics was, was

30:29

you choosing to spend

30:31

time to do bits of research to

30:33

try and map out the cosmos. So

30:35

the game ends when someone finds planet

30:38

x That's gonna be tricky because Panatex appears

30:40

in the cosmos as an empty space.

30:43

So the game has something like

30:45

sixteen segments of Sky depending on whether you play

30:47

it on. Hard or

30:49

harder mode. And so, like,

30:51

you know, there's gonna be like four asteroids and

30:53

two nebula and three gas

30:55

giants or whatever. And only when you kind of

30:57

mapped out the cosmos, will you realize like,

31:00

oh, well, there's there and

31:02

of the there are six

31:05

empty spaces in the sky and then a seventh empty

31:07

space which is secretly where Panax is. So you have to

31:09

kind of deduce where everything

31:11

is in order to finally deduce that, oh,

31:13

Panax must be here because there's

31:15

ten can't be an empty space. It's bizarre and

31:17

tricky and fascinating, and it involves an

31:19

app that gives the drip easier

31:22

information. Really interesting game, but now we have

31:24

a straight up sequel and as Tom

31:26

teased earlier, you found a planet.

31:28

Now can you find a

31:30

snake? So when

31:33

you can't remember what the name of the snake

31:35

was that we were trying to find, but it it

31:37

really made me laugh for something. Oh, I'll I'll I'll

31:39

open the box now and get I feel like

31:41

it was called like the something minute or something

31:43

like that. It had like a or or the digit

31:45

or the nimbus. I don't know what it

31:47

was called. I I drew one of the cars from the

31:49

deck and I thought I was looking at the

31:52

the animals. The animals you're looking for.

31:54

But I drew a car that swamp

31:57

x efforts. It's it's kind of fitting to

31:59

the to imagine you would play this whole game looking for

32:01

someone. It can tell you what the hell is going on.

32:03

Let me get the cards. Tom,

32:05

we've kind of ruined this segment

32:07

by Eric Martining it. Would you like to explain to

32:09

the people I want Eric Martining it?

32:11

Oh, no. Did we do that with this

32:13

game? You did. We we well,

32:16

sometimes, you know, you'll finish the game and and

32:18

you'll just, you know, you'll be a bit tired. As

32:20

we were after playing the search for lost species, we

32:22

were kind of exhausted because we did an exam. And

32:24

and rather than putting away all the pieces nicely,

32:27

you you Eric Martin, of of of

32:29

BGG News fame, where

32:31

you just swipe all of the pieces

32:33

into the box in one big

32:35

motion and let them all tumble in and and now

32:37

Quinn's has to reference the carton and he

32:39

can't find it, but it's taken him and unbelievable time.

32:41

Eric Madden says he saves more time than

32:43

he loses by sweetie because, like, he

32:45

statistically never knows if he's gonna go back to a

32:47

game and play it. Right.

32:49

So the games he goes back to where

32:51

the boxes have mess. Like, he's like, oh

32:53

my god. Yeah. But if that's less

32:55

frequent than anyway, apparently save some time. We're

32:57

discovering it does not save his time. Right.

32:59

Okay. I've got the animals here. The

33:01

you

33:01

oh, yeah. We were looking for a lizard called

33:04

Zug's monitor. That's the what?

33:07

The

33:07

other animals in this game you can look for

33:09

are the CS Scops owl, the

33:11

east septic monkey grasshopper, imagine looking for

33:13

a grasshopper Jesus. The

33:16

WondiWoy tree kangaroo, the Aru

33:18

flying fox, or Attenborough's Long

33:20

Beach Takeda. And you can learn about all these

33:22

animals from the inside of the pirate screen.

33:24

Some Okay. So the

33:27

difference, but the so this is really

33:29

just a straight sequel. So we're not gonna be giving it too much

33:31

coverage. It's it's ninety five

33:33

percent of the rules are the same. So

33:35

in the Search Planet X, you're trying to you've got a kind

33:37

of imagine a whole bunch of

33:39

pie segments. You're trying to figure out what's in each pie

33:41

segment, which is like every angle of the sky.

33:43

Astrologists astrologists don't

33:46

don't write in. We know this is I was

33:48

trying to mess with my

33:48

astronomers. With the neither

33:49

of you write in because You're getting it wrong in so many

33:52

dimensions. Right. Right.

33:54

The search for lost species is different

33:56

because now you've got a hex map. You've

33:58

got an island that you're gonna

34:00

be walking around. And your little pawn on this island has to

34:02

move about. So, like, you've

34:05

got weird new geographic considerations

34:07

of well, first of you've got adjacency rules,

34:10

So it's like you're not, oh, those that, you know, if you find a butterfly, it

34:12

won't be adjacent to a ComeQuad

34:14

or

34:14

whatever. I can't join a blank

34:17

on all animal names. Oh,

34:19

it's a it's a shot. It's like a shot. Up.

34:22

So as you but but now, basically,

34:24

you've got a little pawn who's gonna be walking around the

34:26

island. So

34:28

it takes time to walk around the island. You can take

34:30

a boat around the coast and look for animals

34:32

on the coast, but then you necessarily do

34:36

a huge sweeper coast, so that's complicated. Or you can whoof it. You

34:39

can walk into the island to look for

34:41

a, you know, a camcaught on a mountain

34:43

or something, but that takes more

34:46

time. But there's a pleasant geography where, like, if

34:48

I see Thomas hanging around on the North

34:50

Coast a lot, in one of the game's

34:52

phases where you will have to publish research

34:55

just of what think might be in certain segments, which

34:58

is just as it was in the search of punnet,

35:00

absolutely hilarious that you you show

35:02

up late to this like academic convention and

35:04

they're like, oh, you've been mapping the island

35:06

and you're like, yeah. No. I know where everything

35:08

is. Definitely. Because you get points

35:10

from publishing research, but you don't

35:12

know if If it's right Yeah. Yeah. But if you see someone hanging if

35:14

I see Tom Hanger out of the north side of the island, probably

35:16

his research as to what animals are there

35:18

is gonna be correct, and I don't know.

35:21

It's harder.

35:24

You thought finding a planet was hard. Holy

35:26

crap. Looking for Zug's monitor almost

35:29

killed us. Tom, how did what

35:31

was your experience of playing the set for lost

35:34

species? I I genuinely this is gonna be a really

35:36

rough podcast discussion because I I

35:38

just feel like my brain

35:40

hurts trying to remember what happened

35:42

in our game of the search for a species. It's

35:44

like the way that you have to work it

35:46

out where you're sort of your animal in question Zug's

35:48

monitor is is by working out where everything else

35:50

is, and everything else has a really irritating

35:52

special little rule. And and,

35:54

like, there's nothing here. Should I should

35:56

I read them? Yeah. Tell me about the rules. Tell me about

35:58

them. If you if you find a Python when

36:01

you're looking around, you know that's

36:03

not adjacent to Acoustis. Yep.

36:06

But the Ciscus are

36:08

gonna be near the other Ciscus.

36:11

Yes. Toads are gonna be

36:13

adjacent to an empty area. And we both

36:15

like the lorries. The lorries, which is a kind of bird, is like the

36:17

only crumb of generosity the game gives

36:19

you. Because the lorries are

36:21

all adjacent in

36:24

two by two x to kind of Yes. Great.

36:26

So once you find if you find one Laurie, then you

36:28

know that you you will be able to draw a shape of

36:30

Laurie's quite soon, and that clears up a lot

36:32

territory for you to say. Yeah. And he's and completely infuriating when because

36:35

I spent a lot of my early times of

36:37

the game just sweeping, trying to find

36:39

a single Laurie to

36:41

try and start my my search and failing

36:44

multiple rounds in a row. That's all

36:46

data. That's all data. You know it. Well,

36:48

you'd you'd pick it to

36:50

the data. But there's something very disheartening about being like, are there any

36:52

lorities that the game says, no. And that

36:54

doesn't really give you any information.

36:56

But it kind of well, no. Yeah.

36:58

It's not.

37:00

It doesn't But at the end, not finding animals that you

37:02

look for is kind of even more information

37:04

that I like it can be. It's hard. It's

37:06

like great. It could be one of the other three

37:08

animals or

37:10

m or it could be empty but actually have the thing in that I need

37:12

to be finding. To clarify, we

37:14

we felt overconfident because we

37:17

basically found planet x. Last time we played such

37:19

a planet x. But some we played

37:22

the hard side of the board where the island is

37:24

a weird hourglass shape and

37:26

it's more it's more oh, no. No. The hard side is the island just

37:28

a is like an is a

37:30

circle, which means that everything is

37:32

adjacent to a Yeah.

37:35

Whereas the easy side of the board, the island is more shaped

37:37

like AAA bone, like a cartoon bone, you

37:39

know. Well, I'm so glad we played the hard side

37:41

of the board on this. Well, I was

37:43

I was overconfident. But honestly, the surge fund x, if

37:45

I it's not really a criticism, but that game would

37:48

have more staying power if it was a bit harder.

37:50

And look

37:52

look, honestly, I'm really

37:54

happy that this box came out. I like the set of

37:56

fanatics. I like that there's a sequel now that's

37:58

like a bit more grounded and it's full of animals.

38:00

It's more colorful. I like that it's a

38:02

bit harder. Because it kind of makes me feel like I'm not done with it

38:04

and makes me wanna go

38:06

back. I just I like and I

38:08

like that this game got a sequel because I think the

38:10

such fun is good and

38:12

interesting. Yeah. And I like the

38:14

I will meet people now in

38:16

future who've played one or either of these games.

38:19

I can just look at them. And we don't even need to talk about the game and I'll be

38:21

like, oh, you play the sexual species and they'll be like,

38:23

yep. And then I can just look at the light go

38:25

out in their eyes a little bit and feel

38:28

like, Sucks. It's so hard. It's just really

38:30

hard. I think we've had it too good with these

38:32

Roland writes where, you know, you sit down

38:34

and you don't play you you write down on a piece of

38:36

paper and it's

38:38

all generous. I -- Yeah. -- am very here for the new genre

38:40

of games when you sit down and you write a piece of paper

38:42

and you have a bad time. I like I

38:44

really enjoyed the sort of arc of our

38:46

games being represented by

38:48

how many different colors of pen we

38:50

were using. Oh, man. Yeah.

38:52

There was like a point about halfway through

38:54

where we whipped out a highlighter. And then it

38:56

was like, right. Here we go. And then, like, just because so the point

38:58

we got to that I think is ultimately my only

39:01

mark against this game is that the point that

39:03

we got to at the end neither

39:05

of us could entirely figure out how it

39:07

was possible for because we we

39:09

lost. Right? We just we didn't manage to

39:12

do it. We

39:12

did. We made a a competitive game into

39:14

a cooperative game where you and I were sharing notes and then

39:16

-- Yeah. Exactly. -- it does. It's no game at all

39:18

because we track. But then that was also a very weird

39:20

conversation because both of us had got, like, one

39:23

or two things slightly wrong but

39:25

we're convinced that we'd got them right. To I found that I

39:27

found Zug's monitor at the end. Like,

39:29

after using your notes,

39:32

I was able to

39:34

commencing my notes and

39:36

retries, you eventually pin the

39:38

tail on the dot. Correct. Yeah.

39:42

But yeah, it's a that's maybe the one mark against it was

39:44

that it did that did happen at the end. Right?

39:46

That it maybe was so hard for us

39:49

And I do think we had a

39:51

very unusual, you know, like generation

39:53

of of where things

39:54

were. It was crazy at the

39:57

end. I feel that I worry about, you know,

39:59

putting this out there because we were playing with a

40:01

a non final version of the app. Yeah. So

40:03

it could be that we

40:04

were just part of the playtesting data

40:07

and that

40:07

the app is, you know, like, being refined and

40:09

removing idle generations where it's too high. Right.

40:11

Right. Right. It doesn't really surprise me that that

40:13

maybe having a bit more trouble with the app.

40:15

I think much more complicated technical process to make

40:18

because rather the planet X

40:20

which is sat there being a planet. Each

40:22

of these animals you're looking for has their

40:24

own rules Yeah. Like,

40:26

to help you find them. And

40:28

then the adjacency of the island of the

40:30

island hexes is surely quite complicated. So, yeah, wouldn't

40:32

surprise me a friend of Gator having a

40:35

bit a trouble getting it to a state where

40:37

it's rock solid all the time. Mhmm.

40:39

But, yeah, I would recommend people

40:41

pick up this game or or or

40:43

the Tetra Panax. If they want to experience.

40:45

Just one of the most peculiar

40:48

gaming experiences of reach. Yeah. So

40:50

it's nice. But with the

40:52

caveat that, yes, playing on the hard mode at the

40:54

search for lost species, we don't

40:56

know if that's if that's going to be

40:58

as brutal as it was for us as it will be

41:00

for you. I wonder if it would make

41:02

it quite a good solo game.

41:04

Like, I don't know whether it's true, but even this, there'll

41:06

be definitely something pleasing about the amount of

41:08

different marks and kind of, like,

41:10

deductions you make on your own personal bit

41:12

of paper. You'll lose something

41:14

from the whole, like, publishing theory side of the

41:16

game, but I think it's something that's it's a very pleasing puzzle

41:18

to do solo, which is great because you spend

41:20

a lot of the game doing it solo. I

41:22

think it you could consider the search

41:26

for lost species like one of the

41:28

most fancy and luxurious

41:30

solitaire games of years. I

41:33

do. I think definitely stuff in the manual for some

41:36

facilitator mode. Yeah.

41:41

That's it. For this episode of the Shut Up and Sit Down

41:43

Podcast, we talked about three games. Game

41:45

number one. Good. Game

41:48

number two. Good, but not as

41:50

good. Game number three,

41:52

a good sequel. That's quite well, quite

41:54

positive. That's quite good for us. It's not

41:56

like when we record a podcast and it's

41:58

like we explicit talk about stuff that we think is pretty good. It makes me wish the the

42:00

as I mean, IIII was gonna say

42:02

it makes me wish we could do that all the time, but we

42:04

could we could just kick

42:07

our, you know, standards being endlessly positive. Being

42:09

a few so about everything. I mean,

42:11

we are generally quite quite nice, aren't

42:13

we? We're quite young.

42:16

Yeah. The board gave us a trickier aren't they? Because no one needs to own more

42:18

than, like, I don't know, twenty. There's no

42:20

number you can say, by the way, as

42:23

an answer to that question. That

42:26

doesn't make you sound demented to someone. Like, if I say, no, I

42:28

need to own more than ten board games, then

42:30

people are gonna be like, why would

42:32

you need ten board games? That's performance.

42:35

But but realistically, I've cut my collection off at a hundred

42:38

board games because I think that's enough. I

42:40

think that sounds like the right number. I

42:42

think I'm trying to go into

42:44

this year implementing

42:46

a three star rating system for

42:48

everything. Go

42:50

on. And I think because

42:52

I was thinking so and and and

42:54

I think that we should only cover games

42:57

in a two or three star. Okay.

42:59

Yeah. Unless it's like a

43:02

really flash sequel that everyone's gonna wanna know about and play.

43:04

And if it's bad, then it's like a public service to be

43:06

like My my case for the three star rating

43:10

system is most stuff

43:12

is is realistically is gonna

43:14

be one star realistically --

43:16

Right. -- which is great because it means

43:18

that, you know, everyone lives busy lives what

43:20

do they have time for. You know what I mean? Yeah. So

43:23

you're saying you're like user

43:25

focused. Three star, definitely make

43:27

time for it. Two

43:30

stars get involved if you want. One start, don't go near it.

43:32

Not don't go near it. It's just like

43:34

it's either. It is actively bad

43:36

and and not good, and you don't want

43:38

us to be having it. Or it's

43:40

just not