Operation: Game Night

OGN Ep 17: Fromage, Flip 7, & OGN's Holiday Gift Guide!

• Travis, Clay, & Jared • Season 1 • Episode 17

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Back on home turf, we welcome Clayton Gable back from his break and dive into our holiday gift guide, brimming with must-have games and accessories to make any gamer's season truly festive. Clayton shares his newfound love for Fromage, a cheese-making board game that has us all craving more rounds of its delightful worker placement mechanics.

Our gaming adventures continued with a slew of new experiences and mixed feelings. We couldn't resist the allure of deluxe board game components and the fast-paced fun of games like "Super Mega Lucky Box" and "That's Not a Hat" during our family gatherings. The "Star Wars Deck Building Game" expanded our universe, though "Star Wars Villainous" left us pondering its place on our shelves. "Rolling Heights", with its innovative city planning and meeple-chucking mechanics, sparked spirited discussions and contrasting opinions, proving that even beloved games can have divisive elements.

Clay and Travis give some gifting ides for all audiences in OGN's first-ever holiday gift guide! Stocking stuffers, family games, 2-player games, and crunchy strategic games for the Gamers (with a capital "G") in your life!

Beyond the game table, life has been equally thrilling. From theater escapades and life as a "theater dad" to career transitions from the Space Force to software development, our personal stories add a rich layer to this episode. Our European adventures, including the charm of German Christmas markets and culinary tales from Italy, blend with humorous Epcot comparisons, offering a touch of festive cheer. We invite you to join us on this journey filled with gaming insights and personal tales, celebrating both the love for games and life's ever-changing adventures.

OGN's Holiday Gift Guide:
Stocking Stuffer Games:
- Sea Salt & Paper by Bombyx
- Knarr by Bombyx
- Coloretto by ABACUSSPIELE
- The Gang by KOSMOS
- Scout by Oink Games
- Bohnanza by AMIGO

Family Games:
- River Valley Glassworks by Allplay
- Dice Miner by Atlas Games
- Robot Quest Arena by Perfect Day Games
- Splendor by Space Cowboys
- Planet Unknown by Adam's Apple Games
- Thunder Road: Vendetta by Restoration Games

2-Player Games:
- Caper: Europe by Keymaster Games
- Sky Team by Scorpion Masque
- Tokaido Duo by Funforge
- Wild Duo by Treecer Games

Strategy Games:
- Trolls & Princesses by Game Brewer
- Arcs by Leder Games
- Revive by Aporta Games
- Sol: Last Days of a Star by Elephant Laboratories
- Wonderlands War by Druid City Games
- Barcelona by Board & Dice

We want to hear from our listeners! Send us a text with recommendations, weigh in on discussions, or just say hi!

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast, where the mission objective is to play more board games. Put your battle rattle on and mount up. Let's start the show. What is up everybody? Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. I am your host, Travis Smith, and this is Operation Game Night, episode 17. This is the podcast. That is the reason for the season. Joining me, as always, is Santa's little helper himself, clayton Gable. How are you doing, clay?

Speaker 2:

I'm doing great. I did have my first week off last week since we started this and, honestly, I did have my first week off last week since we started this and it honestly I feel a little rusty on the mic right now. But thanks for holding it down with that solo episode. That was awesome. It was actually nice to listen to our podcast and not have to hear myself drone on. So maybe you're in for some more solo episodes in the future.

Speaker 1:

I will say it's a whole different vibe just talking to myself and staring at a blank screen instead of staring at you and Jared. So I might have to take some pictures of you and like hang them up on my computer next time to have somebody to talk to, because it's very strange just talking to nobody.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I'm bad at talking to actual people, so I don't even know what would happen if I tried to stand here by myself and talk.

Speaker 1:

Had to cut out about 20 minutes of dead air from that episode of me just staring at myself into the computer.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was a little awkward, but we finally got it done. Yeah well, thanks for getting something out there. The listeners deserve our weekly podcast. So Jared and I's fancy travels can't stop Operation Game Night.

Speaker 1:

Games don't stop, and neither do we. We actually had the opportunity and the privilege to appear on the Games Emas podcast with Vic, and Vic is a tremendous host. His podcast is really cool. We did a segment on Castles of Burgundy and whether it deserves a place on your top shelf of your game collection or if it needs to be sent to the yard sale. Not going to spoil anything here, but go and listen to that podcast. Vic is a phenomenal guy, super smart. He's got a great production going. You can check him out on YouTube, instagram, and so look forward to our episode on Games Emos podcast probably coming out later on this week.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, we'll post it when it comes out.

Speaker 1:

So we have a great show for you all today. Uh, we are going to do our holiday gift guide ogn's official holiday gift guide. We got some great game recommendations. I'm going to cover some of the accessories and you know I love my accessories for my games and upgrading components. So we're going to go over some of those and then we're going to debrief our week. We're going to do our gift guide and then we're going to go over the fence and outside the wire and talk about what we've been doing outside of gaming. So, clayton, why don't you kick us off and debrief your last two weeks for us?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm not going to put you guys through all that, but the game I want to focus on in the debrief today is Fromage, which just came out. 2024 by Road to Infamy Games by Ben Rossett and Matthew O'Malley. They put this out. I've been seeing people posting about this and it's one of those things where you see a game and you just know I gotta have that game. I didn't really know anything about it, but when you see that the rolling hills of cheese on the cover I was like well, okay, this is now at the top of my must-have list, and it's rare that I go to a game store and have only one game in mind when I go there. Like I just walked in and I was like I'm walking out if I don't see Fromage, and I didn't know if it would be out yet. I had just been seeing a bunch of influencers post about it. But there it sat in Gamers Haven. So I took out the credit card and I paid for it and I took it home.

Speaker 2:

And now it's mine and I'm very happy. It is because this is a super unique game. It is a simultaneous worker placement game that plays from two to four and essentially you are just making cheeses in these different quadrants of the board. So it's a big circular board and there's four quadrants and in each quadrant there's a little like mini game with a bunch of types of cheese spread out and that quadrant is going to have some certain scoring criteria at the end of the game. Additionally, in your quadrant there's like a place to get resources. So on your turn you can make one cheese in the little mini game in front of you with one of your workers, and you can also put a worker in the resource section to get resources. So everybody does that at the same time. So it's super nice. I had not played a simultaneous worker placement game before, but I was super jazzed on the idea that you could all just sit there with your own little puzzle in front of you, do your thing we all good to go, yep. And then just rotate the board clockwise and now you're sitting with. You're not, you're now sitting with a new little mini game in front of you. So you have three types of workers one to make blue cheese, one to make soft cheese and one to make hard cheese and so when you're looking at the little game in front of you, there are spots for the different types of cheese hard, soft, blue and it's kind of interesting at first, because you're so used to like a Euro game where you have to spend resources to make something, and all you have to do in this is say I want to make this cheese, and you put your worker there and the resource you're really spending is time, because it has this interesting mechanism where so there's three different values of cheese there's bronze cheese, silver cheese and gold cheese, and if you decide to make a bronze cheese, your worker will be pointed to the right. So your worker's in the shape of this little cheese wedge, which is cool, and um, your workers point to shape of this little cheese wedge, which is cool, and um, your workers point to the right, and so when the board rotates, that worker is now facing you again, and so at the start of the next round any of your workers that are facing you you get to bring them back but say yeah, but say you make a gold cheese, they're pointed off to the left, and so it's going to take three board rotations for that worker to come back, and so you only have three workers.

Speaker 2:

So you're trying to manage like, okay, do I want to make this gold cheese that's going to be worth a lot of points in this area, or do I want to make a bronze cheese and get it back right away? And it's the same thing with the resources in the area. Like, you can point it to the right to get one resource, you can point it to the top to get two, or to the left to get three, and again, the more powerful the action you take, the longer you have to wait for that worker to get back. So super clever game. I don't know how well it'll hold up over time, but I played it once with myself and Mary and we were done like 30 minutes, which was nice. And then we played it with Scott and Brittany the other night and it took including the teach, including setup, including tear down. It took like 45 minutes, so nice.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome.

Speaker 2:

It's a super quick game. It's, yeah, that, that time component of deciding. And it's, yeah, that time component of deciding when you want to send your worker out, knowing that he might be gone for a little while. And then the yeah, the different mini games in front of you. So one of them is like an area control of a different, like a map, and the more cheeses you have on that map you get points for certain areas. And then ones like you're trying to create like a group of cheese, like a continuous orthogonal group of cheese. Another one you're trying to create pairs of cheese on these different tables. And I think the last one is you're just trying to get a cheese on as many different tables as you can.

Speaker 2:

Oh cool, yeah, different tables as you can, oh, cool, yeah. So, yeah, the mini games are cool and you can't do them all well, so you really have to time it up and be like okay, the one the mini game I'm really trying to score hard on is coming next. So I want to make sure I definitely have a worker back for that, because you might have some turns if you planned it wrong where you don't have any workers at the start of your turn. That's just like oh well, uh, you just pass, yeah, you just pass, or you could utilize so the resources in the game. There's cows, there's livestock. They're shaped in different ways which can be confusing, but they all do the same thing, but essentially on your turn. If you have livestock, you can spend them to make a cheese in the quadrant in front of you for free. So, in addition to the one you could make if you had a worker, you can also make one by just spending livestock. There's also these like fruits and berries that some of the cheeses on the mat will have a little like fruit symbol on it, and so to make that cheese, you have to spend one of your berries and you're and that's like another little mini game where you can either spend your berries to add like fruit flavor or you can spend them to add jam flavor and at the end of the game, like the amount of jams times the amount of fruit flavors gets you points. So if you only do jams like six times zero, you get zero points. So you gotta kind of balance those. And then there's like order cards and they're super simple. Like you get these and they just say make a silver soft cheese and whenever you do that you can say that's a completed order and uh, flip it over and then, based on how many completed orders you have, at the end of the game you get more points.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, it's super approachable, easy to teach, fast to play at any player count and I am super excited that I have it. Um, like I, it's one that you just want to show people because it's interesting with the workers how they like move around and have to face you to come back. And you know the cheese theme. I I'm into it, you know I like I like a good food or drink theme in a game. So yeah, I would highly recommend checking out fromage if you're looking for a it's I think. I consider it a gateway game. I think you could teach anybody how to play, uh, this game within reason. But yeah, fromage is sweet, yeah, I'm.

Speaker 1:

I'm definitely looking forward to playing this one. I actually backed it on kickstarter a long time ago, oh, and it actually it showed up last week, so I'm really excited to bust that open. Uh, you said that you played it at two and four players. Which player count did you prefer to play at?

Speaker 2:

I liked it at four. They have ways to scale it for the two-player game, so they have these little mats that slide in under the different quadrants that will occupy the different spaces. So they're not available, so it tightens the board a little bit. But it was cool seeing everybody's different cheese colors out on the different areas of the mat. I bet you got those nice deluxe components too, didn't you?

Speaker 1:

I probably did. I honestly haven't opened it up yet, but yes, I probably did. Knowing myself, I probably did.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, but it's a cool game. I'm excited about it. You think it's going to stay on your shelf long term. I think so I. I again, I don't get the time or I don't have the energy and I don't have the people to play some of the heavy euro games that I might like to play. So having a game that, no matter who you're playing it with or, uh, what player count you're at you can get it done in under an hour, yeah, and still feel like you had a cool experience, is probably something I'm not going to part with anytime soon.

Speaker 1:

Nice, yeah, that's great that. This game would have made an awesome addition to Jared's boards and boards night.

Speaker 2:

Uh, yeah for sure, which looking forward to hearing about that next week on our uh, on our podcast. Yeah, for sure. What'd you been playing, man?

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So we had some family in town basically throughout the entire last month of November, and so we got a lot of games played, a lot of lighter games that we've talked about before. We played um, super mega lucky box Can't stop, that's not a hat. And we actually played that's not a hat at five people, no way. And that is like that is the way to play it. That is, it's so much better than the small groups because, yeah, the it's so much better than the small groups because the second, the cards that are moving around, start to shift away from you. It's amazing how fast you lose focus. So you know what you have, and then you flip it upside down and as the action migrates away from you, all of a sudden you're like oh man, was it a top hat? Was it a timer? Was it a hot dog? I completely forgot what I had.

Speaker 2:

So you guys are playing it right now we're playing it right now or playing it correctly. You're playing it correctly now we are playing it correctly last we talked you, you guys were incorporating some uh interesting house rules that I can't imagine.

Speaker 1:

No, no, we we figured it out, we got this down now, but, yeah, we played it a couple of times and Rachel's parents loved it. They thought it was pretty good and a good memory exercise. So, yeah, played a couple of like family lightweight games. And then my brother-in-law is big into Star Wars so he requested that we play Star Wars Villain and star Wars deck building game. Okay, star Wars deck building game Great as always. That game is so tight and so nice.

Speaker 1:

My preferred way to play is the expanded galaxy version of it, which is basically like, instead of the three home bases that you're trying to blow up on each other's sides, you play to four bases and you can select from all the different bases that are available to both the empire and rebels. Okay, and it just balances it a little bit so that the rebels actually have time to get their feet underneath them and start building their engine up a little bit, because we played at the three the three home base original version of it and when the empire will always stomp the rebels every time in that mode. But if you give them a little bit of like build-up time, the rebels can actually get their feet underneath them and start throwing down some big hits. So I barely squeaked it out, squeaked out the wind with the empire in the expanded uh version. So, okay, nice, uh. And I know that the clone wars edition of this one just came out and I'm really looking forward to getting that someday, but not at the moment. So that's on my wish list, because I love this game. It's so tight and so perfect.

Speaker 1:

And then so he wanted to play Star Wars Villainous, yeah, and we kind of mixed and matched some heroes. He wanted to be General Grievous, he played as General Grievous and I played as Darth Vader. And the only other time that I played this game was with you and we were like Moff Gideon and I can't even remember who you were. Oh, I was freaking Kylo Ren, kylo Ren, that's right, yeah. And this game has kind of been looking at me on the shelf for a while now and it's kind of been on the chopping block. It's kind of been on the chopping block for my shelf lately, like I did not really love it the last time we played. It was a little bit exciting because we were kind of learning as we went.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it felt like a drug on, like it just kept like you almost won, then I would show you down, then I almost won, and then it just was like a constant. You felt like you could never get there.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, and and the only reason that that was exciting was because we were learning it, and then, I think, I it came down to the very last card, like we were both on the cusp of winning and you know, that was a little exciting, but I hadn't played it since and the mechanics themselves are not all that interesting. It's like like move, take the actions on the space and then it's the other player's turn.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

And I don't know. I've just been thinking about cutting this game from the shelf for a while now. And so we played it and he was General Grievous. His objective was to get eight Jedi lightsabers. I was Darth Vader and my objective is to turn Luke Skywalker to corrupted or conflicted and then get him in the throne room with the emperor and Darth Vader and I just like smashed my brother-in-law at this, like it was not even close. General Grievous had like maybe three of the eight lightsabers he needed. Oh man, and I just I just think that this mechanic like the mechanics of move, take the actions on the cards or on that space and then let the other person go it's just not all that interesting to me and I I think this is going to get the chop eventually, because I just don't love these mechanics and there's so many other great star wars games out there to play.

Speaker 2:

This is not one that needs to be taking up space on my shelf yeah, villainous is a game that I really wanted to love because again you get all these awesome characters to play from these ips that we love and the the production's nice, like the little minis or whatever they are. They're like kind of abstracty looking versions they're like player token yeah, yeah they're.

Speaker 2:

Those are cool and I played a bunch of the disney villainous ones. I played that one with you and then I just I don't. I don't like the, the fate cards and the ability for people just to get in your way. Like I'm not opposed to player interaction, but it just feels. I just remember feeling frustrated, like okay, I take one step forward and then three steps back because I just got six fake cards played on my player board.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I, I, they do their best to make it feel thematic and the stuff that you're doing feels thematic, yeah, but I, I don't know, I just I think the mechanics and like the interactions themselves just never feel good. Yeah, me, like taking two of your fate cards and just choosing one based on what I think will hurt you the most, yeah, and then taking my own, like solitaire actions, on my side of the table, just doesn't feel very interactive and it doesn't feel real cool. And there's probably like a much better way to, you know, play these games where those two villains are in direct conflict and, like you know, damaging one another or something like that. But that's not the game. So I don't know, this one will probably get the chop when I get back home, or maybe I'll give it to my brother-in-law, but I think it kind of soured him on the experience too, because he just got blown out and there was nothing he could have done. Yeah, that don't feel good.

Speaker 1:

Anyways, on a much lighter note, the game that I really want to talk about is Rolling Heights, and that game is awesome. I really love that game. So, rolling Heights, you are basically city planners that are building a city with your construction crews and you earn points by placing your building tiles of different varieties and building those towers to complete the buildings, which earn you different bonuses down the road. And you earn resources by taking a big handful of meeples and rolling them into your construction site box and then you earn resources based on how they land in that box. If they're standing up, you get double the resource. If they're laying down, you get zero. If they're on their side, you get one, typically, and there's some special characters in there, special meeples that earn you different victory points or buying power or different things like that. But for the most part you're earning resources to place them onto the board to build your buildings. I, as a civil engineer and somebody who enjoys city planning type stuff, I love this game Really cool. I love chucking those meeples. The components all feel good. The board is broken up into these six different sheets and the maps are all modular. So in the rule book it says lay them out however you want, but for a two-player game all the A sides need to be up and there's different configurations depending on your player count. But in the two-player version you have less land mass and so you're building less buildings.

Speaker 1:

My beef with this game was not in the mechanics or anything like that. It was how I set up the map originally. It doesn't really have a whole lot of recommendations on how to set up the map for maximum player interaction, and so I had this giant lake in the middle of the board and then a couple of islands around the outside, and so I played with Rachel. Rachel was building on her island, I built on mine, and there was no interaction whatsoever. Yeah, because when you first play your starting building tile, it doesn't say that they have to be next to each other or anything. It just says that they have to be a minimum of two spaces away. Yeah, and so we kind of played our own little solitaire game, which was kind of fun, and I will definitely give this a try with some different map configurations. But I just love chucking those meeples.

Speaker 1:

You can't beat that and then you get additional meeples once you complete your building. Some of them give you different colored meeples that do different things. And, yeah, chuck in those meeples. And then the press your luck aspect of it is you can risk it to rally your workers. So you pull out all the ones that are standing up, you grab all your lazy laying down not working meeples and you chuck them again. And if you don't get any that are standing up in the box the second time standing up or, you know, laying on their side, then your workers go on strike and you have to lose half of your resources that you had earned previously rounded down, I believe. So, yeah, press your luck. Dice or meeple chucking. City planning and strategic layout of different buildings All great. This game is sticking around for a while, because I love Rolling Heights.

Speaker 2:

Dang man. Yeah, I actually got rid of Rolling Heights.

Speaker 1:

Oh, you're the one that convinced me to get it, because you were talking it up so much.

Speaker 2:

I know it was one that I have fond memories of playing because it might be gimmicky but rolling meeples into a box. And they have these clever ways.

Speaker 2:

They're like you're working hard or you're working like if they're standing up, they're working hard meeple and they're going to get you a double and that's just such a fun gimmick and the colorful meeple variety you have and like it's like a bag building game of meeples of different colors, which is awesome and I loved that part of it. But for whatever reason I I always hesitated to get it out again. I played it maybe three or four times and then it just sat there and then every time I'd look at it I'd be like I just remember those freaking cubes being a pain, like kind of annoying, to manage, stacking them and kind of fiddly, and then if I wanted that push your luck, dice pool building type of feel, I go for cubitos, oh yeah yeah, it's kind of in the same vein, yeah and it's I'm.

Speaker 2:

They're both aeg, I think, to john.

Speaker 2:

Declared design rolling heights too yeah yeah, so yeah, eventually it just sat there long enough. I'm like I just keep going back to cubitos instead when I'm in the mood for colorful dice and you know, getting dice with different powers, and I didn't want to have to deal with the fiddliness of trying to build these little statues next or these little towers next to each other. But it is a fun game and like I would definitely play it. And yeah, it's just at the end of the day, I didn't every now and then I got to get rid of good games because I want to buy more games and yeah rolling Heights was probably a.

Speaker 2:

I remember when I had it on the stack I was like, do I really want to get rid of this? But I was just in that zone where I was like I got to get rid of some games, so I can justify getting more, and so Rolling Heights got needlessly sacrificed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. So the cool thing is, I actually bought this one from the AEG booth when I was in, uh, when I went to Essin last year, and it came with the two expansions that they've released, or the two promos, rather and so one of them is a waterfront properties expansion, and so it has a bunch of special buildings that have to be next to water, which is kind of cool. Yeah, the buildings are largely the same, you build them the same way, they just earn you different bonuses and stuff like that. And then it came with another one that has a big ape expansion, aka kingka, king Kong, yeah, and so after you're done playing the game, you've run out of a certain resource and you total up all your scores and everything.

Speaker 1:

Then it becomes a dexterity game for cleanup, basically, and so the player that won or had the most points takes this big ape meeple. It's maybe an inch tall, it's bigger than the buildings. Most of the time you are trying to drop this ape from shoulder height. You stand up and you drop it from shoulder height and try and knock over the towers that are four cubes or higher, so you drop it. You see how many you knock over four cubes or higher, so you drop it. You see how many you knock over. And then you take the, the ape meeple, and you put it on top of a tower that's four cubes or higher and the opponent that lost or the people that lost become the army that's trying to take down the big ape or king kong, and they drop meeples at your big ape to try and knock him off the tower oh my god so you're knocking over towers all over the place.

Speaker 1:

The cubes go everywhere, uh, but it basically turns cleanup into a dexterity game. The ape is trying to knock over all the big towers that are four or greater cubes, and the army that is collected to fight off king kong is trying to knock him off the tower three times before he can knock over all those towers. So kind of a creative way to like twist, twist the cleanup, but it's kind of gimmicky and silly and it was preposterous but that's cool.

Speaker 2:

I you know I had heard people talk about that, but not in as with as much eloquence as you just did. So I just assumed the ape meeple was just like you throw it at it and make a big mess at the end of the game and that was like what the point of it. But it sounds like there actually is a legitimate air quotes dexterity game there that you guys can I mean play.

Speaker 1:

I mean you still make a big mess of things. And it did kind of hurt my heart a little bit because I was dropping this big chunky, uh ape meeple from shoulder height and I'm a tall guy and so I was actually putting little like dings in the cardboard with this. Yeah, I wasn't like throwing it or anything, but that uh, the ape meeple has some sharp edges and so that doesn't feel great, yeah. And then, after I was done rolling my meeples in my, in my little worker's zone box thing that they have, uh, I could definitely see like some little dents in the in the bottom of the box, which did not feel great either. I hate degrading board games like that. So I don't know, I I I still love the game. I think it'll stick around for a while and I definitely need to look up online some ways to build the map in different ways to encourage more player interaction. But for what it's worth, I love Rolling Heights. It was great.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I can't really argue. I only remember having fun during the course of playing it. John DeClaire, he's one of. He's a designer that I look out for when he does something.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, kind of a sleeper agent, but his game, his games are always good.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, dead reckoning he designed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, he's got some bangers. Yeah, awesome. You got anything else to debrief I?

Speaker 2:

mean I could give a quick shout out to another game. I am like the target audience for all things board game influencer, because if I hear people talking about it I should probably just shut down on instagram. I probably hard to do now that we are a podcast that relies on engagement here. But people have been talking about flip seven and you guys know I am a sucker for Push your Luck and Flip 7, I got it. It was like $12. Sorry, I bought it on Amazon, petrus, I got you.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, it is just a pure Push your Luck card game and I've played it a couple times now and its simplicity just I will probably take this everywhere I go forever because it's just so fun, like the fact that. So in it you're basically just trying to not bust and get the most points every round and the deck is made up of cards from 0 to 12, and it's like one of those games where there's only one number one, there's two number twos, there's three, threes, so the higher up the deck you go, the more of the card there is, but those cards are worth more points. So if you get a 12 in front of you, it's worth 12 points, and so it's kind of. It's like blackjack. Every time you come around to your turn you have cards in front of you and you decide whether you want to hit or pass. So if I have a 12 in front of me, I'm going to score 12 points. But I could hit and try and get another card, score some more points and um, and If you ever get seven cards they're different values. That's why it's called flip seven you get an additional 15 points at the end of the round. So you're kind of like always tempted by that.

Speaker 2:

But if you get like a 12 and 11 in your first two, there's no way you're not busting because they're so common in the deck that you'd be foolish to keep going. But if you got like ones, twos, threes, they're not worth many points anyway. You might as well keep pushing. So I just think that's such a cool. It seems like it should have been done before and it probably has in some form or fashion.

Speaker 2:

But you know, like the fact that the easier cards to bust on are worth more points and the lower cards are not worth many points. So it encourages you to keep pushing your luck. It's just fun. And it's the first person. You just keep playing rounds until someone gets to 200 points. There's some like special cards in there that'll either double your score or you can um, like a second chance. They'll let you bust without, without consequence and then you just get to continue in the round. But yeah, for someone who loves push your luck and just the excitement of seeing people bust and you know, or hit it big, like it's an exciting game and I am glad to have it and I will probably have it forever.

Speaker 1:

That sounds like a great stocking stuffer game this year.

Speaker 2:

It's not on my list, but I didn't want to be too close yeah.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to have to add that to my wishlist. That sounds awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun and then it's so easy to pick up for anybody. I mean you literally, just Is it like literally?

Speaker 1:

just a deck of cards.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean it's got those few different action cards in there, but yeah, it's just a deck of cards and you can literally just I mean, I guess I mean like box size, like is the box size?

Speaker 1:

just a deck of cards basically?

Speaker 2:

Of course not. I mean, it is just a deck of cards in the box, but it is a box that is bigger than it should be for just a deck of cards Of bigger than it should be for just a deck of cards.

Speaker 1:

Of course you gotta make it. You gotta give it some shelf presence. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool nice. Are we ready to move on to our?

Speaker 2:

holiday gift guide.

Speaker 1:

Let's hit the mission objective travis let's fall in on the mission objective, which is our operation game night gift guide. So we're going to go through and we're going to make some recommendations on what you should get the board gamer in your life this year or maybe you have a fellow board gamer or maybe you need to give something to your game group. So we're going to do some stocking stuffers, some family games, two player games and then gifts for the serious board gamers with a capital G. So, Clay, you have anything to say before we jump in on our gift guide?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just want to say like I watch these gift guides and listen to these gift guides every year and I've never, I have nobody in my life that wants me to get them. A board game.

Speaker 2:

So, at the end of the day, I'm just watching them for good game ideas to buy myself. So if that's the boat you're in, I feel you and I struggle to know the target audience when I'm putting this together, because I really feel like most gamers that watch these are like you. Probably don't have that many people in your life that you're just buying board games for, and if you are, they're probably not happy about it.

Speaker 1:

I try, yeah, but yeah, get, get some gifts for your, your game group, or just buy these gifts for yourself. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Or it's okay to give yourself this podcast to somebody who you want to buy gifts for you Perfect yeah.

Speaker 1:

That's a great idea. Yeah and uh. Just for the listener, we will uh list all of the games that we mentioned in the show notes. So if you maybe missed something, we're going to fly through these pretty quickly. So if you missed something or you want to see the list of games again, I will post it in the show notes so you can go and reference it there. Clay, why don't you start us off with Stocking Stuffers? What games are in the stocking?

Speaker 2:

So Stocking Stuffers, small games I love me some small box games, so this was hard. But one that has consistently been a hit for me and I think will be a hit for the person who's stocking you stuff with it, is Sea Salt and Paper. Oh yeah, yeah, sea Salt and paper is a great little card game I it doesn't deserve to be as good as it is because it seems like it's just another card game, but for whatever reason, there's some magic there to the set collection and the limited information you get to know about what the other people might be doing and the fact that you can kind of decide when to end the round and you're kind of taking a gamble on it. It's a great game. It's a awesome artwork and I've always had a good time playing it at any player count. Mary and I love playing this at two and I've played it many times at four or five and it's still a good time. So sea salt and paper is the first one going in the stocking for me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's a great one. I think my first one, although I said I was going to mainly focus on accessories. I think my first one and tell me if I'm stepping on your toes is going to be Gnar.

Speaker 2:

Oh, nope, not on my toes.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, gnar is a new-ish game came out in 2023, I believe. And Gnar is new-ish game came out in 2023, I believe, and nar is about building an engine to buy resources for vikings that are exploring new lands super easy to pick up and learn. Uh, clay mentioned it on a previous episode, so if you want to go back and listen to the episode where we talk about nar, he, he does a good description there, but it's it was, you know, touted as like the splendor killer at the at the time. It certainly has not replaced splendor for us, but, uh, yeah, nar is great and it's in a small box.

Speaker 2:

It will definitely fit in a stocking yeah, that's a great one, uh, next up for me I have coloretto. This is a uh, an older game, but a great one. It's in a tiny box, as you would expect for a stocking stuffer, but essentially you are creating these piles of cards and so on your turn you have to decide whether you want to add a card to one of the piles or if you want to take one of those piles for yourself. So you can only do one of those things and if you decide to keep adding cards to piles, you might be making it better for somebody else and they might take what you want. So it's an interesting choice when to decide to take the pile versus throw a card on another pile, and you're kind of looking at what other people have and trying to put stuff they might not want on a pile to deter them from taking it or, at the very least, impact their scoring in a negative way. So super interactive 15 to 20 minute game have had a ton of fun with Colorado.

Speaker 1:

Nice, good recommendation. I'm going to go. I'm going to shift gears a little bit and talk about some accessories, because I love accessorizing my games and there are so many resources out there to upgrade your games and your game components nowadays. So first off, I'm going to mention card sleeves. I know a lot of people won't advocate for card sleeves. It's extra plastic and most people won't play card games enough to wear down their cards. But I'm a sucker for putting cards in card sleeves for my game. There's something so satisfying about that. Even if you don't play that game enough to wear those cards down, there's something so satisfying about sleeving those cards. It's therapeutic man.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, board Game Geek recently added that sleeve it feature to their different game pages. So if you have a loved one that loves a game that involves cards, go on board game geek, look up the game and there's a little blue tab that says sleeve it and it'll tell you what sleeves to buy for that specific game, because there's something so satisfying about sleeving your cards for your games and that would be a great stocking stuffer for me.

Speaker 2:

I just experienced the first game that I have, that I'm like dang.

Speaker 2:

I wish I had sleeved those cards because we've played it enough now that the cards are starting to look a little ratty and it's upsetting me as marvel splendor. So, oh yeah, I'm I'm upset that I haven't been on my sleeve game and now I'm looking at Marvel Splendor with these raggedy looking cards. But yeah, good choice, excellent. What's next Next up for me? I have a game I talked about recently, new game, the Gang, the cooperative Texas Hold'em game. So if you have got somebody who likes gambling or playing Texas Hold'em, you can go ahead and throw this little $15 game in their stocking and see if they get a kick out of trying to deduce each other's hand strengths during the game.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that one sounded awesome and I've seen that out in the gang. Yeah, that one sounded awesome and I've seen that out in the wild. So it's pretty readily available and you can find it at your friendly local game store. Next is going to be dice trays. For me, I love a good dice tray.

Speaker 1:

Rachel got me some really nice ones a couple of years ago and they made great stocking stuffers. She found these ones that are leather but they fold up in the corners and they have little snaps, and so they, when you break them down, they they go completely flat. But then when you're ready to game, you snap the corners and they pop back up into little dice trays, and those have been super convenient and easy to store and are just like readily available. You can throw them, like in the in the laptop holder of backpack, and they don't take up any space. So, yeah, those dice trays are great stocking stuffers for loved ones that love to roll some dice or maybe chuck some meeples. Maybe they're playing some rolling heights and need to chuck some meeples. So yeah, dice trays.

Speaker 2:

Okay, well, I'll give one more just to try and keep pace with you here. Okay, well, I'll give one more just to try and keep pace with you here. The last small box game anybody that's been around board games for a while will be very familiar with this one and it is Scout. So Scout. Originally I don't know what they got going on in Target, but it was Oink Games. I don't know if Oink Games made it look different to put in Target, but it's now at Target in an Uno-type box.

Speaker 2:

It's very available, very affordable, but it's a fun shedding, ladder-climbing game where the hook is when you get your cards. You can't reorganize them in your hand. When someone plays something out on the table, you can either beat it by playing something stronger than it or you can scout their act and take some of the cards and place them into your hand wherever you want. So that's like how you can kind of manage what runs and sets you have in your hand is by taking cards that other people have played and slotting them into your static hand. So, scouts, awesome, fun game. I don't play it enough. I don't play any game enough, but this, this one, like. I will always recommend it and it fits great in the stocking, whether you get the oink version or the one I've been seeing at target, so check that out to be fair, the oink version.

Speaker 1:

It is a little difficult to get everything into that tiny little box because it is so nice and compact. But yeah, they did the same thing with Cat in the Box and it came in this little tiny flat box originally and now it's in this much larger four by six box. I don't know what happened there, but yeah, those are two. Those are great stocking stuff for games. I'm going to give a quick shout out to Upgraded Components.

Speaker 1:

If you have a loved one that has a game that they love and they're playing with these bland little cubes or resources or whatever, upgrade their components for them. There's 1,000 3D printed components on Etsy and eBay and all these places. Board Game Geek has their Geek Market where they sell upgraded components for certain games. Go out and buy them a nice canvas bag if they're drawing anything out of bags or need to organize things. Love a good bag, chef's kiss or, my personal favorite, the metal coins. I am a sucker for metal coins. If any game that your loved one plays involves any sort of money, go out and buy them some generic metal coins, because those are always so nice that people are always wowed by a nice heft of coins in their hands. So yeah, those would make awesome stock stocking stuffers this year man, I've been going.

Speaker 2:

I took the pirate metal coins I got from dead reckoning and when the kids and I play Captain Flip, we use those metal coins. And it just feels awesome. So are we ready to press on from Stocking Stuffers?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, let's do it All right.

Speaker 2:

So first up in the family games category for me, I have River Valley Glassworks, which is a new game by AllPlay, Valley Glassworks, which is a new game by AllPlay. It kind of feels Azul-like when you're playing it, because there's this river and there's different sections of the river with these little glassworks in them and you have to pick one of those sections of the river to take the glass from and you're just trying to collect these different types of glass on your board with this interesting scoring track that they're on. So like, if you get three different colors of gems, you put them on your board and the first column of colors you put down aren't going to score you that many points for getting a bunch. But as you get a more diverse collection of gems you're going to get points for that. But also the further down in the columns, as you start stacking them up the columns, the ones down at the end are going to get you a freaking ton of points because you've collected them later.

Speaker 2:

So it's fun, so lightweight. I mean you take gems or you, that's pretty much it. You take gems or you refill your little bag that you use to take to grab the gems. Anyway, river valley Glassworks fun 20-minute game Families definitely would enjoy. So check it out if you haven't. If you think Azul might just be a little too much, this is probably just a little bit easier to kind of explain how things are working Nice.

Speaker 1:

Good one. I'm going to go ahead and say Dice Miner for my first one. Dice Miner is always a hit when it's busted out. You have this nice little kind of 3D cardboard mountain that sits in the middle of the table. You fill it up with dice, you kind of pour them out of the bag and, however, whichever side is showing on this little 3D mountain, that's the side that you're using. Whichever side is showing on this little 3D mountain, that's the side that you're using. Players take turns drafting off the top to either create different sets or to do damage or to do these different things. And if you ever end up with a beer in front of you, like a little beer mug, you can roll that beer at another player to give them a bonus and yourself a bonus. And this game is always a hit. You can teach it to anybody. Super lightweight Dice Miner is great.

Speaker 2:

I love dice miner yep, never, never had people not enjoy dice miner always smiles. My next one for a family game is robot quest arena. So if you've been, around.

Speaker 1:

Is this an isaac shout out?

Speaker 2:

yeah. So if you've been around since the episode where I brought my snot nose kids on uh, you will have heard Isaac uh say that robot quest arena. I think he said it was his favorite game.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And he is always clamoring to play it. He's probably on the young side at six to be playing it, but it goes to show you like even young kid. If you the kids can read, it'll make a good family game and it's exciting. It's got these beautiful minis that are fun to play with for the whole family. You're deck building and getting weapons for your little robot to fight in the arena and basically you get points for every time you hit somebody else. So when you knock health off of somebody else, you take their health as a point for you. So it just is encouraging you to just go out there and smack each other in this arena and upgrade your robot by buying cards, and my kids love it, I love it. I want to play this with adults at some point because I still think it would be fun, but Robot Quest Arena is a great little deck-building game that is approachable.

Speaker 1:

Nice, good one. I'm going to go ahead and shout out Splendor, because we play Splendor a lot in our family and although I don't have kids that are of game-playing age, we still love Splendor. You can teach it to anybody and people understand that you are just drafting different gems to then buy cards that then count as gems later on and it's like baby's first engine builder and it's competitive in all the right ways and we play this probably more than any other game when people come over is splendor, because it's probably probably my wife's favorite game at this point. Is splendor so nice, we get a lot of plays out of that and, uh, that is also our game that it has like the ratty cards now because we play it so much so yeah, should have sleeved it I know it's too late, Damage is done.

Speaker 2:

My next family game, my last family game, is Planet Unknown. So this was one of the first games I talked about on our episodes but I just recently played it again. So it's a great little polyomino Tetris-y game and gives you enough to think about. It plays quick, no matter the player count, because, like Fromage, you're spinning this lazy Susan around and you can take a tile from the section that's in front of you and you're all doing that at the same time, placing it onto your little planet and then moving up the tracks associated with the tile, and it's just a fun, rewarding game that I think many families could have a good time with. Might be a little much for my kids' ages at eight and six, but I think you know you get to 10 and up. That's a very approachable game that you could play with the family.

Speaker 1:

Nice, I am going to call an audible. I know that I sent you a bunch of stuff. Mainly it was shout outs for Jared, which were Bonanza, which could be a stocking stuffer game, and then Marvel United. We've talked about a whole bunch on here.

Speaker 1:

But I'm going to call an audible and say Thunder Road Vendetta, it's got a 1.93 weight on Board Game Geek and it's ages 10 and up, but the community says 8 and up. It's a pretty simple car battler. I think even kids could get really into the car battling aspect and the racer on the track and it's super thematic little Mad Max-type theme board game. So Thunder Road Vendetta Plus it's kind of the new hotness right now. It kind of just came out to Kickstarter backers. You can find it in the wild. So Thunder Road Vendetta is going to be my next family game.

Speaker 2:

Okay. So two-player games. This is a fun one because if you're out there and you're a gamer and your significant other might not be that into gaming, this is a fun way to trick them into getting them a gift that is actually for you. So look at that. Or if you know a couple and you're like man, that couple should spend some more time together. These are going to be some good games to build that relationship of a two player game. Or maybe you just got a buddy you want to play games with and you're like man me and Travis. We need to get down with some two player games together. We got a list for you. All right, yes, the first one I have is caper Europe. Oh, yes.

Speaker 1:

That's a great. I have is caper Europe. Oh yes, that's a great one.

Speaker 2:

Caper Europe is so good. I mean there's a million games out there that are kind of like this lane battler type game where you're tug of warring between different areas and you have to balance your presence in the different areas. But I the the way caper Europe does it, I just love it. So you alternate between these rounds where you're playing thieves to these three different locations and you're like passing the cards back and forth during this two player draft and then the next round you get these equipment cards to give to your thieves that you have at different locations and you just go back and forth drafting, doing thief rounds, doing equipment rounds, and they're all like moving these little pieces back and forth as you tug a war for these different areas and you're also trying to steal gems from the areas and collect them to get points. And it's a beautiful production, awesome game by Keymaster. Highly recommend for a two-player audience.

Speaker 1:

Plus, the production on this one is super nice. Yes, I don't know if you have a special edition or whatever, but like the velvet lined board.

Speaker 2:

That's just the regular edition. It's so nice. Yeah, keymaster crushed it.

Speaker 1:

My first one is going to be Sky Team. I got this last year and it has been a hit ever since. It's a two-player cooperative game where you're trying to land a plane and it does handle communication and the interaction between the pilot and co-pilot a little strangely, because once you roll the dice you're not supposed to talk with one another, but you're basically rolling dice secretly behind a little shield. One person plays pilot there, plays co-pilot, and every turn you're trying to allocate your dice that you roll to these different spaces to put the flaps up and to throttle down and to apply the brakes and to do all these different things to make sure that you are level and have the gears down and all this stuff. You're basically hitting a checklist before you hit the ground.

Speaker 1:

The base game or the first round. You play it bare bones, not a whole lot of other added complexity to it. You're like, ok, we did it, it's fine. But then you start adding in the different airports that you're landing at the different modules with like leaking fuel or the crosswinds and stuff like that, and this game gets really complex and pretty awesome really fast. So I've played it with a bunch of the different modules, the leaking fuel you're trying to add.

Speaker 1:

You have to add a dice to the leaking fuel gauge to prevent you from losing a whole bunch of fuel right off the bat. So every turn somebody has to put a dice or a die at the fuel tank or whatever. In that space the crosswinds you have to continually use the rudder to straighten yourself out. Some of the airports that you're landing at have mountains and stuff that you're trying to avoid. So you have to roll and pitch and do all these things to avoid the mountains as you approach, and some of them I've landed at those airports and it is 100% accurate that you have to do that type of stuff when you're coming in for landing. So yeah, sky team is a great two player game and it's it won the Spiel der Jahres last year, so it's a hot game and would be greatly appreciated for two-player games.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, just this weekend Spanky had his brother-in-law in town and he's board game curious and he's excited, and so he came over to borrow a bunch of games and he took sky team and they've played it a few times, apparently having a really good time with it, so that's definitely a great two-player option. The next one I have is tokido duo oh nice so the regular tokido didn't really hit.

Speaker 2:

For me it was was fine, forgettable. But Tokaido Duo is in a small little box and it's just a chill game and you are moving around the board and you have three little mini games you're trying to do and so you're managing that and it's just got a nice presence, quick game and if you're just looking to relax with somebody in the evening, I would suggest giving Takedo Duo a try. It's easy and it definitely fills that void of like Mary and I don't want to get into anything serious and we can just Takedo it out. Have you played this? Nice, good one?

Speaker 1:

I have not, but I've watched a couple videos on it. It seems really cool yeah yeah that's neat.

Speaker 1:

My next one is going to be Wild Duo. I've talked a lot about this so I'm going to skip over it, but Wild Duo is actually a set of five different two-player games and each of those games has both a basic mode and an advanced mode. So you and each of those games has both a basic mode and an advanced mode, so you have to kind of change your strategy for both. They're both animal themed, so if you have an animal lover in your life, this is a great gift for them. It's by Marcus Durr and produced by Tresor Games, I believe. Published by Tresor Games. So Wild Duo is a 2024 production and still hot and new. So if you have an animal lover in your life, go out and get wild duo. One other shout out is, uh, kelp shark versus octopus, also on the newness, also very hot, also awesome production. So kelp shark versus octopus is also a great two-player recommendation from 2024 all right, should we?

Speaker 2:

let's move on. Should? Should we move into the? Uh, the serious gamers, the people that want to get weird with strategy? Yeah, let's do it.

Speaker 2:

The first one this is the only game I think I've ever recommended that I don't actually own. Usually if I like a game, even a little bit, I'm buying it. I am not Jared butared but but uh, considering I don't get to play like the, the crunchy hardcore games as much as I used to, I don't rush out to buy them as quickly. But ever since I played revive it's been stuck in my head. That was just such a cool euro game you're just expanding out on this map. You, you have this interesting player board where you play these different cards to take actions and you either use the top of the card or bottom of the card. You get these modules where you can kind of build a tableau to upgrade those action spots. And yeah, it was a cool game and I think if you have somebody that's into the heavier stuff and likes a nice little Euro game, I think Revive would be a choice they would be very happy with.

Speaker 1:

My first shout out is going to be Trolls and Princesses. Trolls and Princesses 2023, publication by Game Brewer. This game came out last year. I think I backed it on Kickstarter. It's a little heavier it's a weight of 3.15 on BoardGameGeek but it's basically a worker placement game where you are playing as trolls that are raiding a village and so every night you're sneaking into the village and you're stealing their livestock, you're stealing babies out of their cribs, you're stealing princesses away to your your cave system that you're building out, and you can continue to upgrade your cave system to fit more supplies, to upgrade your worker placement, and it's pretty complex and pretty cool Great decision-making, competitive, resource snatching. You actually feel like you're taking things away from these different areas of the town and you're trying to steal the bell towers away from the village. So it's pretty thematic, pretty cool. I have a copy of it and I'm sadly not getting it to the table all that often, but I have played it before and Trolls and Princesses is a great game if you love worker placement.

Speaker 2:

Right on, I? I never heard of that, but it sounds pretty fun. The final one in my serious gamers category and the final one for me, period dot, is arcs. Oh, so yeah, ark's another leader game, the latest one. It is a epic space battle which is fueled by a trick-taking action selection mechanism which is super unique and gives you these agonizing decisions about when you want to be in the lead and when you can follow to optimize your actions, and you're just in each other's faces on this space map. So if you've got somebody who likes the games of conflict maybe they played Twilight Imperium, maybe they're into Root already and they don't already have Arcs they're probably going to like it. So put that on your holiday gift guide shopping list, because it is a great and pretty affordable too. Right, yeah, I think the base game probably like 60 bucks, I mean, I'm just speaking out, out of the turn probably, but that sounds right.

Speaker 1:

That's a lot of bang for your buck. Yeah, oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

Any leader game you can play over and, over, and over again and and just continually find new ways to experience and exploit it. So yeah, check out arcs for yourself or for somebody. All you parents out there that have somebody that is a board gamer in your life and for whatever reason, you're listening to operation game night without which you should Game Night without being interested in board games. Otherwise, I'm glad you're here and now you know what to buy that person.

Speaker 1:

Perfect, I'm going to go rapid fire through my last couple, which will be Sol. Last Days of Asar, that is S-O-L. Sol will be, uh, soul. Last days of a sar, that is sol soul. Uh, I heard candace from board game geek podcast rant about this one basically every week. I think it's her favorite game and I was like all right, this sounds awesome, I'm gonna check this out.

Speaker 1:

And basically you are sun divers, the sun's about to explode and you are sun divers that are flying your ships down into the sun to collect resources and then get back out to reap those resources as efficiently as possible before the sun explodes. The cool part about this one is, as you build your different space stations and stuff around the sun, you can use other people's stations to dive down into the sun and to slingshot around these different bodies that are rotating into the sun and to slingshot around these different bodies that are rotating around the sun. But although that might be more efficient to get down and back, you're also giving the people that own that space station advantages, and I'm using all these terms kind of loosely. I know that there's specific names for all of these different, you know, ships and stations and all this stuff, but basically you're balancing your need to collect resources as fast as possible before the sun explodes, with potentially giving your opponent an edge because you use their space station to get down and back.

Speaker 1:

So soul last days of a star is a great recommendation. Keep them coming. Next next one Wonderland's war. Oh, I have wax poetic about this game forever. The base game is actually pretty inexpensive. You can go out and get it. You don't need all the meeples and everything, just get the standees, get all the basic stuff. It is a great area control area majority worker placement style game.

Speaker 2:

Bag building. Don't forget bag building.

Speaker 1:

Bag building, if you like, pulling chits out of a bag and battling with your chits and bluffing, and oh I, I can go on forever about wonderland's war, but go out and buy it. It's great, it's whimsical, it's immersive, probably one of my favorite games, so, uh. And then finally I'll end with barcelona again big city building, euro style game, where you are building out the city of barcelona. They are actually the uh, the city that invented the grid system that we use today, and so you are building out the city of barcelona with all its monuments and different regions and districts and stuff, and it's a really cool Euro-y city building game. So Barcelona is also a recommendation, and they just had a new expansion for it. So those are my big heavy games for serious gamers with a capital G, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Did we do it? We did it. That is a gift guide that you can take to the bank.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so I think people would be happy with any of those gifts at this point. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Including especially me. So for all my family that I know listen, I have most of these, but if you, if you're listening, I wouldn't mind having that one.

Speaker 1:

If you're listening and you want to buy us a gift, just go ahead and reach out to us on Instagram at OperationGameNight yeah we'll tell you all the gifts we want. Yeah, we'll give you our wish list. Okay, let's wrap this up and go over the fence. So, clayton, what have you been doing outside of board gaming?

Speaker 2:

Travis, I got a lot I wanted to get off my chest in this section, but I don't want. Yeah, let's do it. Let's take it from the top. Okay, I'm wearing this for a reason for the listener, not on youtube. I've got a pokemon shirt on with which pokemon well, that's, that's freaking charmander. Okay, yeah, sorry, I didn't paint a good enough picture, uh, with my words, but anyway, I started playing the Pokemon Pocket TCG on my phone.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I really did not expect much out of this because I was like I'll download it. I think I heard Jamie from Stonemaier Games talk about it in one of his weekly game things. Uh, from stonemaier games talk about in one of his like weekly game things. I was like you know what I? I have dabbled in tcgs now and I had fun for a little while playing poke. I obviously played pokemon growing up I'm freaking in 90s kids, so pokemon will never not be cool to me and so I had been learned, like within the last year how to play the actual like game and build your deck and battle, and not by the kindergarten rules where it's just like my card's cooler than yours, so I win, uh, but anyway. So I was into that for a little while. Haven't done it in a while. But I got downloaded this and it's super fun.

Speaker 2:

Like I did not think collecting cards on a app would be as satisfying as it is, but without spending any money you can open two packs a day, yeah, and then there's ways to get like stamina that lets you open more potentially depending on like if you battle or complete these missions. But I've got like 400 cards collected now in the past few weeks and I got some sweet ones and it really does feel exciting when you open a pack and you see like a freaking full art mewtwo as the last card on there and it's awesome. And they simplified the deck building of it, so you only build a deck of 20 cards and you can have like two of each copy of a card in your deck and so that's simplified. The battling is a little simplified, so it's like you knock out three of the other person's pokemon and you win. Yeah, all in all, I've just been really impressed with it and having a great time.

Speaker 2:

My brother's on it, so we like send screenshots back and forth of the different uh cards we get from the packs. And yeah, if you are like like collecting things and you don't want to be in a money pit by collecting real pokemon cards, the pocket tcg is awesome. I think that's what it's called yeah.

Speaker 1:

However, if you have a gambling addiction and random draws and the ability to spend money on that stuff, it's a problem for you. Probably not for you, yeah because they basically do the thing. They do the thing where you rip the pack open with your finger and then they show you the back of the cards and you can only see one card at a time. You flip them over one by one and it's always this big anticipation Like is the next one going to be the super rare one? Oh, my God.

Speaker 1:

It feels so good, oh, it feels good when it is.

Speaker 2:

But, man, when you open up a pack of trainers or something, I haven't spent any money on it, so I've been just opening the packs I get and having fun with that Building decks.

Speaker 1:

But been just just opening the packs I get and having fun with that building decks. But yeah, fun, yeah, good shout out. Good shout out because I have also been playing and that game is pretty fun you gotta send me your friend id so I can do some wonder picks from you.

Speaker 2:

All right sounds good um, what else you got next over the fence? Obviously went to disney. Wow, that's not obvious. I don't know if I even talked about that. No, you haven't. But I wasn't here on the podcast with my loyal leader travis, last week because we were in disney world in orlando uh, first time I've been since I was like 10. It was the first time our kids had gone. Our parents were generous enough to take us there. They've been planning for it since. Basically, our kids were born Like hey, we want to take them to Disney at some point.

Speaker 2:

So we did and my expectations were pretty low because in general I just don't like being around a lot of people. I assumed we would just be standing in lines the whole time but we got lightning passes and we were on things so quick and it was amazing Like I might be a Disney adult because I want to go back there all the time, especially shout out to Hollywood studios. That was my favorite. Going to galaxy's edge was the highlight of the trip for me, like feeling like you were literally in Star Wars the movie.

Speaker 1:

It's pretty awesome, yeah, walking around with the stormtroopers, and Rey and Chewbacca are sneaking around. Yeah, it's pretty awesome.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's so cool, but anyway, freaking Disney trip was great. I think the kids had fun too, but I honestly was so focused on all the fun I was having I couldn't tell you, yeah, but honestly, was so focused on the all the fun I was having I couldn't tell you, um, yeah, but yeah, I want to go back now, with or without the kids. I want to go for me to, uh, go back to galaxy's edge and I want to go to universal next time and check out the Hogwarts, um, and the new Mario, the new Mario, oh, really Just opened up yeah the new Mario world just opened up.

Speaker 2:

We ate dinner in Hollywood in the toy story land and it was just so cool. I don't even know if the food was good, but it just felt like you were in a freaking toy box.

Speaker 1:

And I loved it, did you go on? Rise of the Resistance that was amazing. It's incredible. It's probably the best special effects I've seen on a disney ride period.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that phenomenal, it's so cool I don't know if I ever should even go on another ride. That was just like an epic life experience. And it wasn't like apparently I'm old now and I can't do roller coasters anymore. I was like getting sick on the freaking roller coasters, but that one did not make me sick, you were just kind of like scooting around this area. But yeah, that was my favorite ride by a mile. Oh yeah, just being in galaxy's edge was awesome too. But, yeah, excellent, freaking Disney world. Like they needed any more endorsement. But it's awesome.

Speaker 1:

Give the, give Walt Disney your money. He needs your money.

Speaker 2:

And the last thing just fresh off the dome here, because last night we went to see Wicked and it was amazing. Up until two months ago I'd never even seen the Wizard of Oz and then, because the kids were in that Wizard of Oz thing, I watched Wizard of Oz and watched their play 16 times. So Wizard of Oz is very familiar to me now and I had no idea what Wicked was. Apparently it's the prequel to Wizard of Oz and they just came out with the part one in theaters and it's a musical. I love musicals. I did not want it to be over. I'm gonna be singing you're a theater dad.

Speaker 2:

You're officially a theater dad now I'll be singing those songs for the next three weeks now, but yeah, if, if you haven't checked out, wicked you should, it'll make you super popular, oh, oh like that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, when we went to London this past year we decided to go get tickets to go see Wicked at the West End.

Speaker 2:

You saw it in real life.

Speaker 1:

We saw it in real life and we got to the I don't know if Rachel has ever been to like a Broadway play or any sort of live play like that and we got to the intermission portion and Rachel goes is it over? And she was like getting ready to like stand up and leave and I'm like no, no, there's a second part coming. And she's like how long is this thing? Apparently we decided that we're not theater people. So good for you and Jared that have some class and like to go watch the movie.

Speaker 2:

Then you don't even have to be a theater person to go see the movie.

Speaker 1:

I mean I'll take my two month old daughter and go see the movie.

Speaker 2:

I'll drop her off somewhere. There's plenty of people that want $20 for watching a baby.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's probably true. Excellent, yeah, all right.

Speaker 2:

That's it. I've spoken too much, but I just hadn't talked to you in a while and those things have been very important to me and I wanted to tell you about it.

Speaker 1:

Most importantly, is your time in the Space Force coming to an end.

Speaker 2:

I am no longer going to work in the Space Force. I'm still technically a part of the Space Force until May, but I started up. Yeah, I probably should mention this too. This, obviously, is probably the biggest thing that happened in my life, but it's been overshadowed changing careers it's been overshadowed by wicked yeah um yeah, so I started my skill bridge internship this week. So just getting my my feet wet there, I'm trying to figure out some freaking software development coding man. It's crazy, but yeah.

Speaker 1:

Good for you. Your watch has ended. You are done being Galactic Defender. Thank you for your service. Of course, sir, keep serving Awesome. Good for you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. So what's up with your life? Man, I don't have all that much to brief.

Speaker 1:

Awesome, good for you, yeah. So what's up with your life, man? Uh, I don't have all that much to brief. I we've just been hanging out and being a bunch of bums and, you know, watching lots of TV and movies as we as we do. And I read a couple of books off of like book tick tock, book tick, tock, tick tock books, whatever you know, talk books or whatever. They're pushing these books like oh, these are the best horror books that I've ever read. So I was suckered into buying a couple of those and, honestly, I've been disappointed. So I think I'm going to think for myself from now on and not to buy books that are recommended on social media.

Speaker 1:

And then we've been going to a lot of German Christmas markets, because we are in full swing of Christmas market season and every little village in town has their own little one. But then you can go to the big cities that have these gigantic, sprawling ones. So when we go up to visit my brother-in-law next weekend, we're going to go to the Cologne one, which is like one of the biggest ones in Germany. It's huge, it's like right at the foot of their big Gothic castle. So really looking forward to that one one, and then we'll do a couple other small ones around there okay and yeah, it's like a whole thing.

Speaker 1:

Like people come to europe during this time of year just to go to christmas markets and to collect those, uh, little mugs. So you go and you get your your spiced wine that's called glue vine and you pay a deposit like two euro, three euro, four euro, for these little mugs that have the city name printed on them with like a christmas scene and a snowman or whatever it is, and people collect these things from all over the world. So we have our little micro collection of christmas market mugs going and, uh, it's been pretty fun just to go around and eat the food and see the towns and do all that sort of stuff.

Speaker 2:

So that's cool, but you also can just go to.

Speaker 1:

Epcot, that's also true. It's basically the same thing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's basically the same thing. I don't know why we're doing Europe when I've been to Epcot now.

Speaker 1:

So have you seen France? Well, I have been to Epcot.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I did eat some pizza in Italy last week, that's right, you've been to Paris.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I've been to Paris, las Vegas, paris, france, las Vegas, whatever, paris, paris, whatever it is, yeah, awesome, that's cool.

Speaker 2:

Did we do it?

Speaker 1:

We did episode 17. Good to be back. Welcome back, yeah, welcome back to all. This has been episode 17 of the operation game night podcast. I am your host, travis Smith. He is your cohost, clayton Gable. Yes, I am, and we're out.