Operation: Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clay Gable get together to discuss the latest and greatest in board games in this weekly podcast. What's hot, what's hitting the table, featured discussions about board games and the board gaming culture, and the primary mission objective- to play more board games!
Operation: Game Night
OGN Ep 38: Lost Ruins of Arnak Strategy, Foundations of Rome and Skull King
This week we diving into the mind of a Lost Ruins of Arnak addict and picking Jared's brain about all the hot tips for breaking 100 points in the game. We also do a Kickstarter Preview for Fight for Inheritance, talk about one of our favorite trick takers, and revel over the amazing production and streamlined gameplay of Foundations of Rome.
00:00 Intro
04:18 Jared Debrief (Fight for Inheritance)
12:07 Jared Debrief (Skull King)
21:15 Clay Debrief (Foundations of Rome/Metropolis)
31:30 Jared Debrief (Blokus)
35:45 Mission Objective (Lost Ruins of Arnak Strategy)
01:10 Over the Fence
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast, episode 38. 38. I'm episode 38. 38. I'm your host. Yeah, I'm your host today, not Travis Smith, I am Clay Gable and with me, as usual, my esteemed co-host, jared Erickson. How you doing?
Speaker 1:I like that. You said as did you say as usual, like. Usually he says like as, and you know it's not always. You know I'm, it's consistent. I'm flaky at best, you know I'm. I'm like a Pillsbury, you know I'm flaky. I got butter between the layers now.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, everybody loves you. Crispy buttery layers. Yum, it's it, it works out well clay, I was trying to come. Oh no, go ahead. I was gonna say how the hell are you doing? I'm doing good. I was a little stressed. I realized as I hit record I hadn't prepared some witty intro. Yeah, like travis always has. You know, jerry the job guy, all that business, and you know this episode. Probably people are clicking off it right now because no, they didn't hear.
Speaker 1:They didn't hear travis. No, actually I'm gonna. I'm gonna make them click back onto it, because if they're listening on Spotify or Apple TV or Apple whatever, they better get on YouTube. Because, clay, you're looking fly as hell. I don't know what brand this is that we're wearing right now, but we're feeling retro, we're giving funky fresh, we're giving Flintstones, and then we popped on tie and a little bow tie. We're here to be professional, but have a good time.
Speaker 2:Almost like a mullet.
Speaker 1:Party in the front business, wait. Party in the back, business in the front? I can't remember. Yeah, we're party everywhere, though yeah, I'm always partying, so what are we getting into?
Speaker 2:today yeah, today we are obviously going to debrief our weeks, like always, yeah, but then we are diving into the mind of a future world series of board gaming champion, no, jared erickson. We're gonna do a deep dive in one of his favorite games lost ruins of arnak and we're gonna talk all the strategy tips that have propelled him to. At one point this man almost had a 400 elo on lost, you know. So he's out there. He's fighting with some of the best of them on BGA every day 400 and some plays. We're going to get the down and dirty scoop on how he manages to be such a menace in that game. So really looking forward to that segment.
Speaker 1:Buyer, beware Take everything I say with a grain of salt. I do really enjoy playing it. I won't say that it's the best strategy tips. I think there is some decent YouTubes out there with good strategy tips, but this is just what this is, jared Erickson, what I do. I won't say it's like the best by any means.
Speaker 2:No, it's the best.
Speaker 1:This is the operation Game Night approved strategy. We'll just say that it's maybe B plus level. I don't know. Maybe we can ask Rodney what he thinks what grade he'll give this strategy. Does he do strategy? He just does how it's written. No, no, no. He's just telling you how to do grade he'll give this strategy.
Speaker 2:Does he do strategy? He just does how it's done. No, no, no, he's just telling you how to do it. Yeah, no strategy, yeah, okay, you're telling us how to do it. Well, yeah, yes, yeah, all right. Well, hey, why don't you kick things off and give us a little debrief of your week in gaming, jared? So?
Speaker 1:so I had quite the week in gaming, had multiple game nights and a game morning the ever elusive game morning, um. But I'll start off my debrief with one that um has not been. What do you call this? It's, it's not to print yet. Or um, it's just up on kickstarter. It's on kickstarter. We were lucky enough at ogn to get a hot copy of fight for inheritance. This one is um. It's got some good backstory and lore, it's a card game. Um, look, card game. They're looking for some feedback on it. It feels pretty well fleshed out. It's giving me Coup vibes. Have you ever played?
Speaker 2:Coup. I love Coup. That was one of the games I just demolished when I first got into board gaming. We played that constantly.
Speaker 1:So obviously a lot more cards than ku ku's like, very simplified, and that's very like you're playing bs, essentially with a small deck. This there's a lot more strategy going on, maybe a lot more card counting, um, but there's still a lot of bluffing, still a lot of body language and it gets the heart racing, which I'm a a huge fan of Some of the things. Initially I was just like I'm not sure how that's going to play out while we're playing it. But the game was easy to pick up. There's probably about I don't know 12 to 14 action cards, but at the bottom of each of these cards, as you can see on the screen, it'll tell you what the card does like. Hey, you can look in the top three of the like cards of the action deck and look and see what are they?
Speaker 1:Um, essentially, the goal of the game is to outlast all the other opponents in, uh, this competition to win the king's inheritance. That's the name of the game. Fight for inheritance. This crazy king, he's lost his mind. He's going to die soon. Who's going to win the king's inheritance? You have to outlast your brothers and sisters because there's assassins in the deck, so you need to amass bodyguards to protect yourself from those assassins. Everyone starts off with two bodyguards, and another great thing about this game is it pretty much tells you in the rules just make up your own rules if you don't like these rules, or adjust them as needed. If you don't like two bodyguards, only start with one or start with three, I don't care, play this game and adjust it to how you guys like to play it. There's a great pick of a bodyguard. He looks menacing, he's going to fight for you, he's going to make sure that you win the king's inheritance, the money, the gold around him.
Speaker 1:As you can see, those are also action cards. You could be drawing something and getting an action card and you're like, oh, um, I actually pulled gold instead of, uh, an action card. Now, bodyguards are not action cards, they're their kind of own um card. But you can buy bodyguards with the gold. You can also use the gold to bribe someone else's bodyguard. You can be like hey, randy, I want, I want to bribe your bodyguard with three gold and if he doesn't essentially re bribe, like, actually, I'm going to pay him off, I'm going to give him four gold and now I get to keep him, and then you both lose the gold that you used to kind of like win that bodyguard challenge if you will, and so it's like you're stealing bodyguards. You're trying to kill off people's bodyguards too. Those are action cards.
Speaker 1:There's special bodyguards, I think they're called like royal bodyguards too. Those are action cards. Um, there's special bodyguards, I think they're called like royal bodyguards. I think you you did show one of the cards. Those are specific bodyguards that are actually in the action deck so you can draw those ones, but there's only a handful of very, very rare to draw those ones. Um, but yeah, yeah, it's a lot of fun. The best card if you could go up and click that shiny one that's kind of on the far right.
Speaker 2:It's called oh, I see the secret bribe.
Speaker 1:Okay, this one's a lot of fun. It's just this random card that you'll draw into your hand and it's a secret bribe. You're supposed to lay it down on the uh on the table, um, but you don't want anyone to see what you're doing, so you lay it down face up on the table and if no one sees it face up, then, uh, for three turns you can say, hey, I had a secret bribe, and then you get to steal someone's bodyguard. But if someone sees that you had a secret bribe and they can call you out hey, you got a freaking secret bribe on the table, I see it. You put it right there. Then they call you out for the secret bribe and you lose one of your bodyguards. So it's like risk reward. That's what got my heart thumping.
Speaker 1:Okay, and it's got to be face up, like you got to have it. Well, I think in the rules it says you can kind of cover it up or kind of hide it a little bit. But we played it had to be face up, in plain sight, and so it was stressful, but it got my heart racing. I swear they were looking right at it, but it was hiding in plain sight. They didn't see it. It was like hidden right by my elbow, they weren't even looking, and then I got to steal one of the bob, one of their bodyguards. Um, a lot, a lot of fun, this game. Um, I don't know what kind of what do we? What kind of uh we give uh kickstarter, like medals, I don't know, like a yeah, we'll have to workshop that, but I did say it was on kickstart.
Speaker 2:It is launching soon, so, oh, if you, if you, if that sounds interesting to you, go to kickstarter fight for inheritance and you can get notified when it actually launches and you can back this game. It sounds like it was a lot of fun. Jared dude I, I had a blast. Exciting bluffing, exciting bluffing gameplay. Yes, big bluffer. Oh yeah, yeah, bluffing hard, all right. Well, anything else on Fight for Inheritance, before you talk about one of our favorite trick-taking, games.
Speaker 1:No, just another shout-out to was it Red Cannon? Yeah, red Cannon Games for hooking us at OGN up with a hot copy and we loved it. And yeah, it plays ages 8 and up plays. It plays ages eight and up and um, I'm about to play it, probably this week with, um, uh, my babysitter family. Like they, they have kids that range from, yeah, eight and up and they are freaking love this one so oh yeah, yeah, I can imagine why.
Speaker 2:And being deceitful, oh, I mean, cusk is man. Oh yeah, let's talk about Skull King.
Speaker 1:Yes, so um had Tanner back over and, uh, you know he's from the Midwest, he loves himself a good game of spades. But, um, skull King, what a great trick taken game I even. I even brought on the score sheet just to make sure everybody knows, including Tanner, that I kicked his ass last night. I got 60 points and he was negative 30, and Sarah was negative 10. So apparently you just got to be in the positives to win.
Speaker 1:But what you do is, as the game progresses, you get more and more cards into your hand. So you are just like most trick-taking games you have to set a goal of how many tricks you're going to win. And there are suits and you lead off with the suit. And you have to set a goal of how many tricks you're going to win. And there are suits and you lead off with the suit and you have to follow the suit. And if someone plays a trump card, they can win the trick.
Speaker 1:And so at the very beginning of the game there's only one card, everyone's dealt one card, and whoever starts the turn, you know, sets the, the, the suit, and you know if they have the green two, and they set the suit at green and everyone else has yellow. Uh, they're gonna win with a green, two and so, but that's only one card and then you keep going until all the way till 10. So now you got 10 cards in your hand and there's mermaids and there's freaking pirates and the skull king. And the skull king, he's got a mermaid kink. Okay, he gets. If he sees a mermaid, he get, loses his mind, he falls into the water and mermaids can mess up a skull king because the skull king's at the very top. He can beat anybody and everybody, except for the mermaids, but yeah but the mermaids.
Speaker 1:They get taken out by the pirates. The pirates, they've been on the water a long time. They're like screw these mermaids. I've seen them before, I know what they do. I I've heard the siren song. I'm not gonna fall for that stuff. And uh, but the skull king, he's he's a sucker.
Speaker 1:He's a sucker and uh, so had a blast with this. One is really fun. It's also really cool. One of the one of my favorite mechanics of the game, too, is if you say I don't know what do you call it? When you say I'm not going to take any, I'm going to take zero bags, just hitting zero or going nil or whatever.
Speaker 1:Nil going nil, I'm not going to win any. So if I say I'm not going to win any, you're going to score however many points. So, however many, the round is times 10. So if it's the sixth round, times 10, you're going to score 60 points if you actually don't win any that round. And so I was able to do that last night. I can't remember what round, I'll just look at the score sheet. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Seven.
Speaker 1:I did it on round seven and I had a couple trump too, and I'm like I bet you I could freaking sneak these under some mermaids and some pirates, and I did.
Speaker 1:That's beautiful. So when you go nil, it really pays off in Skull King. But the last thing I have to say about this game, which is my absolute favorite, is the beginning of every round you put your fist into the middle of the table and you go yo ho ho and that's how you tell the other players how many bags or how many tricks you're going to take. And then you stick out your fingers like I'm going to take two. So you go yo ho ho and you have your two fingers out and everyone else says like three fingers out. And you're like what the hell? We only need like four, like there's only four tricks, and we're showing seven like yeah, somebody's in trouble. Three people are like there's going to be three people that are not gonna be happy and uh, so anyways, huge fan of skull king, grandpa beck, strikes again okay, yeah, you like cover your assets too, right I love cover your assets, huge fan, yeah, yeah grandpa beck's killing it at the house.
Speaker 2:How many people did you play with? Just just you and Tanner.
Speaker 1:No, we had three. One of my friends that's in my class here in Maxwell. She came over Nice.
Speaker 2:Was she a Spades player? Not as much.
Speaker 1:She's from the Pacific Northwest but she caught on super quick.
Speaker 2:I mean she's played a lot of hearts, hearts. She said so okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, if you played a trick, taking game any of them, you can pick this up pretty quick. Did they enjoy it? Oh, everyone loved it.
Speaker 1:Um did they put in their Amazon cart? I told them to. If not, I might just have to send it to them for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the true test. Usually a small game like this. If it really pops off, people are just ordering that thing on the way home.
Speaker 1:They're like, yeah, I need that oh yeah, I mean, this is a great stocking stuffer. It fits right in a stocking yeah Backpocket. This is a great skull king is perfect small box game.
Speaker 2:Did you? Did this go on the small box episode?
Speaker 1:I think it was in the bracket, did it go.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't think it made it very far. Honestly, man, I it unfairly, but that was a bracket that was full of just absolute bang bang.
Speaker 1:So it yeah yeah, so one thing that I was going to ask you about this one is there's like an advanced version of like an advanced uh rule set. I don't know what that is. There's like uh, there's like whales and stuff yeah I, we did not get into that, but hey listener. If you've played with the advanced rules, please hit us up on Instagram. Let us know what you think. It also plays up to eight players.
Speaker 2:That's another big one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, big plus Ages 8 to 99. If you're 100 years old, sorry, sorry, don't come knocking.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a lot of fun Not playing Skull King. Nope, play something else, not playing Skull King. Nope, play something else, not Skull King.
Speaker 1:Yep, all right. Well, clay, what kind of trouble did you get into this week?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so before I talk about the game I'm actually going to debrief. I got to say last week Cam talked about Critter Kitchen. Yes, I got visibly excited in the episode, as he described it, because it sounded so much fun kind of bidding for priority at different locations with your different small, medium and large animals, where one can carry more, one can carry less, but it gets to go first. That sounded so fun to me I bought it right away and since then I've played it three times this week, which to play a game three times period in my collection is crazy. To play it three times in a week is unheard of. Yeah, I played it once with the kids. They loved it. I played it once with Mary just being her two players. She loved it. And then we play it last night with the headings at four players and it was awesome there too, I loved it in every circumstance.
Speaker 2:Critter kitchen is a knockout for me, yeah, so I don't want to get into it because we already, like, talked about it a lot last week. But if we hadn't, I would be talking about critter kitchen because I'm super excited about that game. It's food themed, cute animals, yeah, and it's got a fun little like bidding mechanism that kind of makes the whole thing go, and I've been having a blast.
Speaker 1:So I just have one question though what was your favorite animal to use? The big one that gets all a lot, or the little guy that goes? Get one really specific item.
Speaker 2:You know, they all have their. They all have their purpose, right? You know, if I, if I knew there was one ingredient at a spot that I really wanted, I would send my little mouse. I'd be like you know what you got to get that that high valued mushroom.
Speaker 2:Yeah, little mouse, yeah, I'd be like you know what you got to get that? That high valued mushroom, yeah, but I did like sending the boar out and hoping that he ended up alone at a location and he could just haul back, haul back a whole load of stuff, yeah. So I mean that that core gameplay is just endlessly amusing to me, so I look forward to showing it to more people.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, we were chatting on the portal this morning with Mason and he seemed to really be thrilled about Critter Kitchen. So yeah, that's Definitely Great family game. Yeah, I'm all about it. But I am stoked to hear about Foundations of Rome.
Speaker 2:Yes, so it has been a long time since I played Foundations of Rome. I don't know why it just sits there in this massive box. It's huge, it's hard to ignore and somehow I've ignored it. It just, you know, fell off. I played it probably like 20 times in the first year. I got it. I loved it. I still love it.
Speaker 2:But last night Scott and britney were coming over. I'm like you know what? I kind of want to have a little bit of a spectacle, you know. Yeah, and this game is a spectacle. All right, the production on this thing is amazing. Each player gets their own little carrier that has all their little building pieces in it, and these are massive building miniatures, I mean, and it just all fits so nicely in there. They all have their little indented slots that show, you know, what rewards you get when you end up placing them out in the middle of rome. But before I go too nuts on the, on the, the production is crazy. All right, this game's one point something weight and it's got the production of like a crazy CMON game that's going to cost you $300. Yeah, so I like that. I don't think that only big, heavy games should be rewarded with an amazing tactile experience that draws you to the table. This is a lightweight game that has the table presence and tactility of something you would, you know, expect in a heavier game, and I that's why I got it. I was like you know what? I have all these games with all these cool minis, but no one will play them with me because they're too hard. So I got this. I was like you know this, this game. I get that same feeling of getting to play with cool toys, and I can also teach it to anybody, because what you're doing is really simple.
Speaker 2:On your turn there there's a shared map of rome. It's like a nine by nine grid and each spot on the grid has a number in the letter, like a55, and those are lots of land that you can purchase. And on your turn, you can either purchase a lot of land by claiming it from the D grow and then you put your little lot marker on it. Say, you have a couple lot markers out there. On your turn, you could also remove your lot markers and replace it with a building of the correct shape. Or, if you're out of money, you can take income, which you always can take five coins and then you get more coins based on how many commercial buildings you have out. So it's a really simple core gameplay where you claim lots, build buildings or take income, and the way all the buildings interact on the map is what is so cool, because you have these commercial buildings that get you money and points at the end of every round. Then you have these population buildings and at the end of every round, whoever has the most population gets a bonus, but everybody that didn't have the most population scores points based on the population of who's ahead of them. So it's this like interesting little jockeying position on this population track. So that's why you're putting out the population buildings. And then the last type of building are civic buildings, which these are the most interesting buildings because they get you points based on what they're adjacent to, because they get you points based on what they're adjacent to. So if who I'm playing with they built all these beautiful people buildings out there, I can just plot my little civic building that gets me points every round, or every civic building it's next to, no matter what, no matter whose they are, even your own, yep. So even your own Yep, so even your own. So it's so cool the way you know everything you do matters and you're trying to see what other people are doing and just trying to sneak those little civic buildings in where you can get some points off somebody. It is just such a fun game that is so simple to teach and has an amazing table presence. I, I, I want to play it again and again Now, after just playing it, it can feel a little overwhelming at times, like the gameplay is so simple and fast, but there's a lot to think about on your turn.
Speaker 2:You know, when you look at those, I think there's six lots up for that you can buy at any time, yeah, and you have to kind of like see where all those lots are on the board. It's like, is that adjacent to one of my other lots, so I can make this big building that's going to be worth a ton of points? Or do I want to get this lot that's over here next to somebody else's little district because I want to mooch off of their hard work? You know there's just a lot to think about when you're buying those, those lots of land and like what type of building you want to put out where. But yeah, foundations of Rome great game, way too expensive for what it is. But you know, if you, if you want to have something that's going to get people's attention and you're able to actually teach it to them, this is a great game.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and if the gameplay sounded fun and you're like, but I don't want to spend a fortune for all these fancy components, they just came out with Foundations of metropolis, which is the same game, but in a regular size box. I think it just has tiles you put out instead of these big minis, but, um, so now they have a much more affordable version of foundations of Rome. Um, in foundations of metropolis it is. It's a great gameplay. Pretty quick. We played four players, probably about 60 minutes.
Speaker 1:Click on buy a copy. Any used copies cheap. Where's buy a copy? The green button on BGG See, this is where I Jared, go to see. Is this scroll up a little bit? Geek market is looking tough. Okay, this is 300 used. Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Okay, um, yikes, okay hey, there's an english one for 200, all right, okay, yikes, yeah, those other countries.
Speaker 1:So you're not getting rid of this one, right?
Speaker 2:I'm not getting rid of this one.
Speaker 1:Don't you dare.
Speaker 2:I got it on their website for like I think I bought it for like $140 from their website. Wow, but I don't. It doesn't have like I mean, it's tricked out. It's got all the minis, but they also had like an even more tricked out version with like metal coins and expansions and things, so you can really clay.
Speaker 1:If you're ever considering getting rid of this game, don't you dare and you give me a call, okay okay and then also mary mary. I want you to hear this this is an investment did. Did you hear that he bought it at 140. And now we're talking, we're looking at 340 pounds. 340 pounds, that's UK right there. So I mean, these are investments, but Metropolis I'll look at foundations of Metropolis, so that's awesome.
Speaker 2:So that's awesome. Yeah, no great gameplay. Again, like I said, I love the fact it was polarizing that they made such a light game so expensive. Yeah, People were like what the hell, why would you make a game that's a 1.8 weight on BGG cost $150? No one's going to buy it, and I get that, but also I love having it. So what am I gonna say? You know?
Speaker 1:I mean when in rome, I mean right yeah absolutely.
Speaker 2:Mary got this for me for my birthday a few years ago that, see, that's, that's, that's mary being Mary.
Speaker 1:She's great. Yeah, she's all right.
Speaker 2:We're Team Mary here. Let me see if I can find the foundations of Metropolis.
Speaker 1:While you're pulling that up, I got a bone to pick with Scott and Brittany because they keep kicking my ass at terraforming Mars, so if you could tell them to chill on BGA. They are absolutely mopping me on the carpet, but oh, geez, oh, here we go.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so Okay, same thing, you're shared. Building out a city yes, and it's just without the minis. So minis, you can get this for a reasonable price.
Speaker 1:I can't you know, tickle my fingers through the minis so you can get this for a reasonable price. I can't, you know, tickle my fingers through the ivory columns. It's fine, but the vibe is still the same. It looks good. I like it, yeah, so I'm still into it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's even got the same little player mat to just not the big minis, and I think this looks like a great option. This is actually the first time I'm looking at it and it's cool. It's like a modern city type theme. It looks like where you're putting out shopping malls and restaurants instead of coliseums and whatever else you're doing in foundations of Rome. So yeah, foundations of Check either one of them out. If you're feeling a little frivolous, you know, check out that geek market. Yeah, oh, all right, we've debriefed I was gonna actually can I?
Speaker 1:revisit something actually. So tanner tanner came by, uh, last night and he brought over block us. Um, you don't need to pull it up, but when you were talking.
Speaker 2:You know I like to pull stuff.
Speaker 1:I know you mean, you can, if you want, have we played, block us before. No, no, have you. Have you played it? You know what I'm talking about it's like this little tile placement it's quick foundations of rome is like a more uh, nuanced version of that. I feel like this one is like straight up, place a tile um, go see how far you can get um. And we played at four with, with adrie and sarah, oh, and adrie in the mix oh yeah, she was into it and uh, here I am playing my game.
Speaker 1:Um, we played a couple rounds. It wasn't until like the fourth game we played and I realized that the name is called block us. Yes, because you're kind of trying to block people. I thought it was like block us, as in these little tiles are kind of like blocks, but actually you're trying to block people from getting into your space because you can kind of use your tiles and they're very Tetris-y kind of vibes. But the only real rule of the game and that's why it's like five and up Ike and Macy would really like this game um, yeah, but you, you literally your color. You can keep placing your color tiles as long as you go touch tip to tip. You cannot go broad face on broad face. It just has to be a corner. Corners can only touch, never broad faced.
Speaker 1:And you have like I don't know, like maybe 20 ish Tetris-y tiles and all of the tiles have different shapes and angles, but they're all. I mean they're orthogonal. They're like all squares squared up. That's weird, but you can. But like the game starts from the corners and then you can spread out however you want to spread out. And initially I was just like I would just try and beeline for the center and then like go towards my enemies.
Speaker 1:But Tanner, he's the one who brought it. He was like kind of turtle up, he was more defensive but he kept winning and I'm like what the hell, dude? Um, I don't know what that picture is. Oh, these guys are just doing art. Um, yeah, but then that's when I realized that the name of the game is block us and you're trying to like block people out, and so he was being really smart about it and I was not, and uh, so he absolutely throttled us and block us. But, um, don't sleep on this one. So you can like go to the other players areas and then, as long as you're going, tip to tip, you could slip into their areas and um, yeah, it looks like you know spreading out blue and red have really intermingled in this big nice photo here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, gotten all up in each other's business, yep.
Speaker 1:Red, like where your mouse is. Like red could slip even more into blue and just start moving anywhere. Yep, right there, she can go tip to tip and slip right into that open space. And Travis is going to hate me talking about tip to tips and slipping and all that. So, yeah, cut that, cut that, cut that, cut that, cut that. I won't cut it.
Speaker 2:I'm in charge this week. Yeah, bow ties are on when are you anyway, travis?
Speaker 1:what? What's he doing?
Speaker 2:I don't know man, come on, he didn't really even tell us.
Speaker 1:He's just like yeah, I can't, I can't these next like month he's you know what he's moving from germany or something he he's yeah, he's trying to soak up his last few hours over there in europe. I don't blame him, you know yeah don't blame him. Yeah, but this is what happens when our fearless leader runs away, when the, you know, when the cat's away the mice will play, kind of thing yep, these mice are playing.
Speaker 2:Wait till he finds out where you're taking them.
Speaker 1:Taking us through a bga tour, yeah this might go horribly bad, but I'm into it I think it's.
Speaker 2:I think it's gonna go well. I'm excited to it I let's ship are we about to go on the main?
Speaker 1:event. Is that what he's? No wait the main objective, so let's roll out mission, objective yeah, what is he? He kind of gets? He's got like a deep voice. He's like, all right, are we did we do it? No, wait, that's at the end. He does that one. Yeah, um yeah, um are we ready to roll out?
Speaker 2:hit the mission objective mission objective you bet you travis. Yeah, let's do it. I mean, dad, all right, um, you know what? Let's just, let's just go ahead and bring up a little bit of your credentials here. Oh what, I talked on it on the beginning, but we're talking about a guy who's invested a lot of time in the Lost Ruins Varnak. Oh, wow so 421 games played, 189 victories, currently at a 288 ELO. But you can see here he was cresting towards 400. I don't know what's been happening as of late.
Speaker 2:I think that's when jemma was born, and then it's gone yeah, it's gone down but you know, this is the guy who's earned his stripes in Lost Ruins of Arnak and he will beat your average person to a silly pulp, like he does to me and Travis and every other person that isn't a BGA enthusiast like him. So it's time to get into how you think about Lost Ruins of Arnak and what you're looking for as you play this game. So if you would like to, I'm going to turn it over to your screen share here.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah. Well, what we've done here for the listener and poor Travis is we set up a quick game on BGA just to show back and forth maybe the starting first couple games of, uh, arnak. I'm not gonna like teach you how to play arnak, but maybe what I think about, um, while I'm playing arnak. So this isn't like if you want to learn how to play, go, rodney will teach you how to play ryan, how to play this game. So maybe this is like a 200 level course. This is not a 100 level course, real simple, though you should know that you start off with six cards, but you have six cards in your hand or in your starting deck and you start with five.
Speaker 1:So every time that I see my hand when I start the game, I'm always like okay, what, what did I start with? How many fear do I have and how many compasses do I have? That's like really what I look at when I look at my starting hand in our neck, because, um, that tells me if I'm going to be able to go to the middle area this round or not. Um, and it also depends on if I'm going first or second. I think in this game too, you're more likely to win if you go second. Um, I don't know. I think that's the case because there's almost like a second mover's advantage type vibe going on, because I get a compass if I go second and um, and you can see my screen, clay is going first, so he gets I'm gonna do something.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna do something quick, probably ill-advised. This is not a strategy you would go for. I'm selling some coinage and I'm gonna buy a card I mean, you can do that um I'm gonna buy the machete, sure, because I always spend as much money as possible whenever visiting the market.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean that's, that's my strategy.
Speaker 2:So now let's get to what, what you're doing um.
Speaker 1:So, clay, he did not block me on any of the camp uh locations down on the bottom row, which that's beautiful for me, um, but I, so I go second and I did get my two compasses. So this is good for me because I could use my sell, my two compasses and now I can travel to the middle road this round and Clay can't block me because there's frigging eight locations for me to go to. So I'll save that for my second archaeologist because, um, he can't block me. So where do I want to put my first archaeologist? That's where I'm going to go now. So he didn't put anyone down here, so I'm going to choose where I want to go.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I, clay, I would not. I wouldn't buy a card first, I would try and get me, try to get a freaking Arrowhead or a Ruby first. And honestly, I always and this is what Dallin always does, if you're a listener, longtime listener to the podcast, dallin is my play buddy that I've been playing Arnak with for about four years nonstop. Every day. I'm playing Arnak with Dallin and he kicks my ass more than 50% of the time. So really you should be interviewing Dallin, but me and Dallin essentially it's a race to see who goes here um to get the uh the arrowhead, unless there's some key cards up here um to buy one of the uh art or? Or are these the artifact or the item item cards?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, and I wouldn't say the machete is one that I would shoot my shot on, um just throwing that out there. Well, it costs four, so it had to be good. Maybe I don't know one I would shoot my shot on is the airplane. The airplane is awesome that one lets you travel to any location for two compasses less that one's huge. So you could go to one of these middle locations, discover a new site, for only one compass. That's huge. So I would have done what you did if it was the airplane but not today.
Speaker 2:So you know what you're looking for up there. If it's not there.
Speaker 1:You got to read the tea leaves. So today I'm going to go for the arrowhead and then I'm going to let you decide what you're going to do now.
Speaker 2:Okay, Well you know what? You gave me a lot of grief about my first decision, but now you talked about rubies. I'm going to go ahead and go to that ruby spot, nice, and get one of those, because I'm moving up the temple track. How's that? When do you start prioritizing that?
Speaker 1:track. How's that? When do you start prioritizing that? Um? So, honestly, the first round not as much, unless you see certain assistants that you really like, um, okay, something I like to do is look for ones that kind of pair well with what cards are shown to maybe I don't know what her name is, this assistant, this lady right here that you trade in a gold for a um, an arrowhead or a ruby? Okay, I really like this lady, she is great, but she costs, she. She'll suck you dry for money, right. So you need to make sure that if you get this lady, you better have cards that will feed you cash, or else, when you get to the the higher levels in the um in the research track, you're going to run out of cash and it's going to hurt you in the long run. So be careful with this one. I don't know this research track. You're going to run out of cash and it's going to hurt you in the long run. So be careful with this one. I don't know this.
Speaker 1:This uh assistant who lets you buy either an item or an artifact effect for one. Less is nice, um, maybe not one that I would rush to block you out of. Rush to block you out of. So I'd say the most valuable assistant in my eyes is the assistant that gives you two gold and then when you upgrade the assistant it gives you three gold. That's probably my favorite assistant. So if I see that assistant, I might try and position myself to get an assistant first round, which is kind of hard to do. You have to go, you have to go to the mid middle level and, uh, to be able to do that, I might try and get to the middle level this first time to see if I can snag this pretty lady. We'll'll see if I can do it. I don't know if I can. You can do it. Let's see when am I at.
Speaker 1:I have already moved one of my archaeologists. I have one to go, I have three compasses and the only travel I have is a boat. Um, what I I could do is I could go to this location, this boat location, which would give me a compass bonus and that would set me up nicely to um research, this research space, which would give me a compass and a, or I'd have to pay a compass and an arrowhead to go there. Yeah, I could also go to this location which upgrades that arrowhead to a ruby to go here, okay, ruby to go here. Okay, it gets me the same um outcome. But I actually prefer a compass arrowhead vice. A ruby because if you go to here, it gives you more options. You can go to either one of the next locations. That's maybe another. Another option. You think about all that. Another option to think about Clayton Give yourself more flexibility in the future stages of the game.
Speaker 1:I never even looked at that. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what. Can we summarize what we've talked about so far? Set yourself up for traveling to the middle row as much as you can. Set yourself up for flexibility. Look for key cards or assistance. Maybe those are, like my first round, kind of things to think about.
Speaker 1:And again we kind of talked about, think about so and again, we kind of talked about this with with Vic on his podcast when I decide to travel this location, I don't know what's about to hit me. So now you just have to react to whatever happens. See, now I'm I'm flushed with fear. I have a lot of fear. I have another Ruby happens. See, now I'm I'm flushed with fear, I have a lot of fear. I have, uh, another ruby and uh, it's scary out here, but we'll have to figure out what to do from there.
Speaker 1:But I did just set myself up to get a an assistant, though, because now, look, I could go. I could go um Ruby to to push up my eyeglass and arrowhead compass to push up my booklet. So I could get an assistant in this round if I wanted to.
Speaker 2:You're getting a lot done in this first round. I think I'm going to go ahead, and I have a Ruby. I don't like holding on to things, so I'm just going to go ahead and push myself up this track with little options. Um, and that's, that's my turn, okay.
Speaker 1:I I'm going to. I'm going to go take my own advice and move my eyeglass here to give myself more flexibility. The one thing I don't super like about getting the assistant the first round is it's going to cost me a lot of cash and then I can't invest in cards. So what you were talking about is actually very profound. Clayton earlier, oh is yeah, and investing in these cards um, getting that machete this first round can help inform your strategy, like later on in the game. Like investing in cards early pays dividends later on in the game, like big time, um, because too many times I've played games where I get so excited about the research track. Or trying to get these bonuses because these are tasty little bonuses on the research track. Like if I were to beat clay to the next level of the research track, like I could, you know, discard a, a card before him. But like at what cost? You know I'm saying at what cost yeah, I mean.
Speaker 2:So I am going to hit up another one of the base camp sites because I have not set myself up for middle row travel. But I'm going to think about the future and get some compasses so that next round I'm getting out there right away. I have no boot. I have soiled my pants in front of everybody no boot. I have soiled my pants in front of everybody. No, I am going to waste an archaeologist. That is so you are getting two sides of the spectrum here. You're seeing you're seeing someone do it really well and you're seeing somebody that I've played a lot of games, lost rooms of our neck and that's pretty embarrassing. But I just you.
Speaker 1:You got really excited about the machete um yeah, I waste. An archaeologist spent a lot of uh coinage to get there, didn't you?
Speaker 2:and then you find yourself like this, where you've now just let your archaeologist sit in camp and you have to pass. You've really messed up. Yeah, you might as well concede that might be the.
Speaker 1:the number one operation game night rule is never leave your archeologist at home. Always employ your archeologists. Okay, yeah, uh. Here's another little thing that I don't mind doing um, but it's tough in this position is I don't mind letting the um, the monster, give me a fear card, if I know I want to go there next time and I know I'm going to be the first player next round because you're going to give me the first player token and I'm going to go first.
Speaker 1:But this one's tough because if I go there next time, I'm going to get a fear card and if I don't kill this monster, he's going to give me a fear. So that I'm going to get a fear card, and if I don't kill this monster, he's going to give me a fear. So that means I'm going to have like five freaking fear cards in my hand, yeah, in the first round. And that's that's not good. That's not a good look. But so are you going to try and deal with this right now or are you just going to? I don't know if I actually can. There's not a lot of uh, good options for me. Um, this is also another um, tough situation for trying to do this live. Um, uh, we have not prepared this um situation. You know, if we did this, like you know, live together with the actual board game maybe we could have set this up, but yeah, we're just doing it yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm going to just research. I'm going to get the assistant. I'm going against my judgment. I'm not investing in my future.
Speaker 2:I just lied to everybody um you know, I really might like when I play this game and I don't win much, but the one thing that I can wrap my head around that I like doing is beating guardians and getting those five points. Is that, is that something you care about? Are those five points? Is that something you care about? Are those five points? Pretty much inconsequential compared to climbing the research track.
Speaker 1:I like getting the bonuses from killing the guardians and I always try to get four killed guardians by the end of the game. That's a good goal. I don't know, that's kind of my vibe Four not killed. I think you overcome them.
Speaker 2:We want to tame them. They give you a benefit. Then yeah, because you didn't kill them, you're gonna ride it around or whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're part of part of my crew. Um, what do you think, clay, in this position? Uh, I can't, I can't really, I can't fix him. I could turn in my idle bonus and get a trap, and I could trap him. Oh, here's another good.
Speaker 2:Point of discussion for the strategy yes. What's your view on idle bonuses, how and when to employ them? Point of discussion for the strategy yes, what's your view on idle bonuses, how and when to employ them? Do you ever not use them all? Because I use those things as soon as I can.
Speaker 1:I've never not filled all four of those spots. I always need to At near the end of the game. I'll just be doing math in my head If I push this up, what am I going to get out of it? I don't just blindly do it In the beginning of the game. I do, don't. I'm like send it, like yeah.
Speaker 1:I want to. I want to keep, uh like, moving the game along. I want to. I, I probably would say the most used idle bonus that I do use is um, either getting a um arrowhead or getting a coin and a compass to either get a card that I really like or um or something like that. Okay, let's see, instead of going back to this middle row and getting another fear card because I already have so much fear, I'm just going to use my bear trap, and so I can get the free idle bonus and kill one of my four guardians. That my goal is. So wait, what's the bear trap? Do the bear trap? You do have to discard it, but you automatically kill a guardian that is at an empty location.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, nice.
Speaker 1:But anyways, what else could we talk about? We're not going to play this whole gameplay.
Speaker 2:I just want to be clear. Yeah, I was trying to find a good way to transition here. Figure out where we should quit.
Speaker 1:Here's another thing that I also like to do. I like to invest in item cards that let me get more compasses. I feel like compasses are like a critical I don't know. It's like a center of gravity, if I were to use some more military terminology here. Yeah, um, like, this automobile is nice. It's tough because this costs a lot. This, uh, chronometer also nice. Like you know, I like I do like investing in things where, like, you can pass to gain big things. And like, um, it's tough, though, because any time you have to pass with a card to gain a big reward, it's like you're shorthanding yourself, and I am all about deck builders, where you're drawing a lot of cards, and oh yeah, you know building a big old engine, so I'm really drawn to drawing a lot of cards. Um, I feel like something about compasses that really get me going, but okay, well, so a couple more questions for you.
Speaker 2:Yes, the artifact cards. Yes, how, how often and how valuable are they? And how often you try to get those?
Speaker 1:because they cost compasses which are, no, you know, prize possessions there I feel like it's a good balance between traveling to a new location and the artifact cards. That's why I feel like I need a phone, a friend to get dallin on the phone, um, because he I feel like he's got it down, I don't know if he goes. I feel like he prioritizes the blue cards over going to a new spot Really, because I think eventually blue cards that he gets will eventually help him travel to more new locations.
Speaker 2:I mean, they got airplanes, they got airplanes. I find myself only looking at the blue cards when I have nothing else to do. Yeah, and I do like that you have nothing else to do. Yeah, and I do like that they give you can play them right away. Yes, so they give you a bonus. Yeah, but it does suck when you have to pay that tablet to use them the next time. Yep, so I don't know. I've never really gotten a good feeling. Like I said, I usually just do it when there's nothing else. I got going on for me and I found myself with a lot of compasses. Are you phoning a friend?
Speaker 1:I might have to phone a friend, but I'm going to ask him blue card or travel.
Speaker 2:I mean God, it's got to be travel right. I mean you travel, you have a chance to overcome a guardian for five. You get a slew of resources.
Speaker 1:You get three points for the little idol bonus, yeah. And then if you kill the guardian or you tame the guardian, that's five.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And the bonus from that and you get a lot of extra sweet resources like, yeah, I just can't.
Speaker 2:I can't see spending on this, really, unless I just went nuts with compasses somehow. Well, here's another. Here's another travel discussion. When, when are you looking to go to that top row, or do you even care? Would you rather go to the middle row a bunch of times versus go to the top row? I love the top row.
Speaker 1:I think I try to hit the top row, maybe night three or four. Some really, really good players that I've seen. I can't figure out their strategy. They always kick my ass, so maybe I need to change my strategy. Some of them can get to the top row night two. Really, yeah, I don't think I've ever seen anyone maybe. I don't know if it's possible to get to the top row night one, but I've seen people do it for sure night I.
Speaker 2:I could do it night two, but I feel like I would have sacrificed a lot. I would have, you know, went to that little compass campsite twice in a row. I wouldn't have spent any compasses. And then, you know, maybe by the end of night two I had six. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I could see how I could do it by completely ignoring everything else. But I get the feeling that these, that these people aren't ignoring everything else just to go to the second, the third row.
Speaker 1:People aren't ignoring everything else, just to go to the second, the third row, to get to the top row, you definitely need to get a lot of research bonuses. You get a lot of compasses from your eyeglass moving up and then you get a huge three research, a three compass bonus, huge three research, a three uh compass bonus. Once your booklet gets to, uh, above this level um, which is what the I don't know if like fifth level up. So I don't usually get there until, yeah, night, three, four, you know, like it takes me a while to get it up there, and at that point you've already upgraded your assistants twice. So hopefully you've got an assistant that helps you travel or gives you good compasses already, because a lot of the, a lot of the um assistants already give you compasses, like most of the assistants have a compass built in um.
Speaker 1:So I don't know, I might, I might have dallin, might have to. I don't know, he won't, he probably won't give me his strategy, because then, yeah, I can't imagine he will, he'll just, I'll just reverse psychology him and, yeah, maybe I'll start winning for a change, you know. But I'd be interested to see, like, what does Dallin do? Because I feel like he definitely has a way to do things. And when I did play with him live over Christmas, which was an absolute blast because we played with the expansion and it changes everything. The expansion is so fun, um, like he was like oh, I love that card. Every time I see that card, I love it, which for me I already mentioned the airplane. I also love the dog card and I love a good dog, but the dog gives you a compass and any of the bottom row that's unoccupied, oh, great dog, yeah, dog card, yeah.
Speaker 1:So that one could potentially give you three compasses in one card, which is incredible.
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, my last question before I'll quit picking your brain on this game Research track. How high do you try to get? Do you have a goal for every game? Do you always want to be trying to get your compass up into that top row there, because you can get a lot of points when you get to the top of that track?
Speaker 1:Yes, especially if you then can also grab some of those tiles, those like 11, six and two point tiles I would say, when me and dallin play together, um, if we both don't make it to the top row up here, um, we both know it was a bad day, so we're both making it, we're both making it to the top. I would say usually we're getting a bonus, uh tile from the I don't know what these are called. What are these called? Golden temple tiles, temple tiles? Okay, yeah, I've had dallin get to the top row, get both of the golden temple tiles.
Speaker 2:No, yes, that's crazy.
Speaker 1:He's dropped three figures on me multiple times. Wow, that's what I'm saying. Dallin, we should do a part two, and Dallin should be able to do this.
Speaker 2:Okay so that's your eyeglass getting up there. Do you care how far your book makes it after you get your second gold assistant?
Speaker 1:So points wise your booklets not getting you nearly as many points, like. So if your eyeglass gets to the second highest location, you're getting 12 points, and if it's getting to the one below the top row, you're getting 12 points. And if it's getting to the one below the top row, you're getting 16. So that's a four point jump going one spot. If it goes one more, that's a seven point jump. So it's like exponential. It's like not completely exponentially, but kind of right, you're growing tons each time you're going one more step, but it's getting harder and harder each step. Right, like um, that very top row is, uh, ruby, compass and a gold and that's that can be tough Um, but by the end of that um can be tough um, but by the end of that um, by that time maybe that's night four, maybe it's night five. Um, your assist, your assistants, should definitely be fully uh, they should be flipped over to their gold side. They are humming.
Speaker 2:So you're always, you're always getting two gold assistants. Oh, 100%.
Speaker 1:That's a minimum but maybe booklet chills out and maybe you don't necessarily get booklet all the way to the top Because, yeah, sorry, I lost my train of thought, that was my ADHD.
Speaker 1:Sorry, your booklet only scores two each time it goes up it goes two points, four points, six points, eight points it's linear it's linear, hey yeah, did you teach man I heard, you, I heard you, you guys talking about you guys uh bumping elbows, about uh being combat instructors at the air force academy while I was teaching math, being a big nerd, thank you yeah, freaking nerd, you hear me drop that linear on you yeah, I dropped linear.
Speaker 1:I loved it, um. So yeah, it's linear, so you don't get as much. You don't get that extra bonus, um. But the booklet bonus is big because look, look and see what the top bonus is for. When you do get your booklet to the top row, you kill off a guardian for free and that's five points, so kind of it is a big deal. Up to get a guardian you need to be at a location to kill or to tame a guardian to even make that a useful move. So sometimes I don't.
Speaker 1:I don't get my booklet all the way up there. I need to get my glass to the top to feel good about myself.
Speaker 2:So Okay, wow. Well, jared, I think this has been great. Hopefully everybody out there who's playing Lost Rings of Arnak you listen to this. You're going to bust it out with your friends and family and just drop a hundo on them. You'll be up there grabbing two gold temple tiles and they're going to be like what did you do? And you'd be like, listen, two gold temple tiles. And they're going to be like what did you do? And I'd be like, listen, I got the airplane round one. I made sure I had two gold assistants, yep, and I freaking got that eyeglass up to the top. It's awesome to hear somebody that thinks about these things so strategically. When I just pop open the thing, I'm like I have a rub Ruby. I will go up the spot that lets me go up with a Ruby, just.
Speaker 1:Clay clicking around.
Speaker 2:Yep, just clicking around man. That was cool, so I want to do this again with Feast for Odin.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, so Dallin, he did hit me up. He says the priority is definitely a new spot unless it's a top tier blue card. So he knows there's a tiered system of the cards. So yeah wow. So again he sees the cards, he knows, he knows what he likes. So yeah yeah, okay study the cards too, you know if you're an arnack expert out there, please hit us up we maybe we can put together like a panel of arnack experts. Is wait? Is arnack on uh world series of uh I don't know.
Speaker 1:I just hope so I don't, I don't think so. Um, I should know this. I need to start getting ready. I need to start getting ready for my World Series of board games.
Speaker 2:You're not doing a great job getting your butt kicked by Scott and Brittany at Terraforming Mars Terraforming.
Speaker 1:Mars is on the list. Yeah, so Sarah. I mentioned Sarah a couple of times in the podcast and actually you can see her name right there Glass, what is it? It I can't read it on on your screen glass bane, glass bane. She is one of my uh helpers training me on uh on terraforming mars. I got her hooked up on um Game Arena and we are playing some Terraforming Mars so I can get some more reps and sets. Yep.
Speaker 2:Well, we are looking forward to continuing to follow your training. Thank you and benefit from your strategy advice, jared, as the strategy wizard amongst the three of us, the one that will play the same game over and over again yeah yeah, not me, that's for sure. So it's cool to hear your thought process, but, aside from kicking butt in Lost Ruins of Arnak, what you've been doing outside of board gaming, jared?
Speaker 1:You know, no one's surprised by this, but I'm a bit of a cheap ass. So I've been preparing myself for the move up to Virginia and I have been scavenging for boxes. So I've been hustling, I've found some wardrobe boxes, I've put out some feelers and people kind of know me as the box guy around work now and I I have, I have people that kind of work for me now. They're like hey, yo, jerry, um, uh, I know there's this guy. He just moved here. He's got boxes, you interested? And they give me the deets, they hit me up on Teams, they give me the location. I show up in a shadowy corridor, I get the boxes, I put them in the back of my car and I'm gone. Solid, that's solid. That's how I'm going to save some money. And I'm gone, solid, that's solid. That's how I'm going to save some money. And I'm going to beat inflation and try and save some more money for Gemma's education.
Speaker 2:Just send her to the Air Force Academy, man. She don't need to save for that.
Speaker 1:I don't know if she needs to go there. Are they going to have a Space Force Academy or what? Hopefully. If there's a Space Force Academy, bet yeah.
Speaker 2:I'll write her a letter of recommendation. She's always been a space cadet.
Speaker 1:She's kind of been a space cadet. She's like her dad.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But anyways, yeah, I've been running around, we have packed a few boxes, we're still I mean, we're still like seven, eight weeks out, so how?
Speaker 2:what's your school situation? Are you guys dying down?
Speaker 1:I'm. I'm graduating in uh two and a half weeks, wow, uh, yep, it's called the gathering of eagles. Next week at the Air Command and Staff College, we have some air power enthusiasts coming to tell us about the great things that they did to better the air and space forces.
Speaker 1:So, I'm ready to learn and soak up some knowledge. And then, yeah, we graduate the week after that, and then I'm going home for a little bit. Utah, yeah, going to Utah, probably going to have to pack a few small box games, am I right? Yeah, grandpa Beck's coming home with me for sure, about to yo-ho in Cache Valley, baby yeah.
Speaker 2:Heck yeah, baby, yeah, heck yeah buddy, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:What about you, Clay? What have you been up to over the fence?
Speaker 2:Man over the fence, I. You know the job hunt's been tough. It's been a struggle applying and networking and conversating with all types of people. But I did get my first job offer, no way On Friday, and so I have until Monday afternoon to accept and I think another company might be throwing in a competing offer Really On Monday as well. This is big news. Yeah, it's been a long time coming. I know it's only been a few months, but it still feels like an eternity of trying to market myself and make sure I have some money for the family and the civilian world. So that is a big weight off to know. At least I will have something going back to Pennsylvania, somebody is going to employ me and I'm looking forward to, you know, not carrying that burden anymore around. So, yeah, it's pretty, pretty huge. I'm excited about it. It but in more fun news, righteous gemstones oh yes, did you finish it?
Speaker 2:uh, is there one?
Speaker 1:more episode tonight. I don't know. So adri and I are actually. We are, I think, on episode like three or something like that. Oh, okay.
Speaker 2:God man, it's so good.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's just such a freaking.
Speaker 2:I don't know how they write that stuff, honestly, like Danny McBride is crazy yeah.
Speaker 1:There's a lot more um manhood in this season Um yeah, uncle baby Billy's really, let's all hang out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was feeling not so good about myself after seeing Uncle.
Speaker 1:Baby Billy. Hey, I think Adri even said she's like that's got to be fake.
Speaker 2:I was like I don't know.
Speaker 1:It looks real to me.
Speaker 2:As an expert in the subject.
Speaker 1:Next week on Operation Game Night yeah.
Speaker 2:But, yeah, been loving Righteous Gemstones and Brooks started watching it and he's loving it too. I think he's through season two now. Yeah, and so the younger generations even appreciating that uh, little offbeat humor. Yeah, and I finally started watching severance. Well, mean, I shouldn't say finally, because Mary and I quit it the first season like halfway through. But after everybody's been on about it I was like maybe it's worth it to just push through. Yeah, and the first season was awesome, good, and now we're in season two. Super glad, super glad. I went back and listened to the, because one of our episodes, I think with paul solomon travis, said some bs from severance. That just went completely over my head. He's like, oh, fresh off of refining, scary numbers is clay. And I was like what's he talking?
Speaker 2:about and he said something to you about jared just got out of the break room. I was like like I'm like I don't know what this guy's on right now.
Speaker 1:But now I just make sense.
Speaker 2:Yeah, him and Paul are like yep, yep, yep and I was like, oh my God, I don't like being out of the, out of the pop culture references. So I'm back in it. All right, severance is good. Stick it out if you got bored in season one. This has been the theme of my past few months is I re-went back to Sopranos Glad I did it, because that was amazing Went back to Severance that I quit on and it's been amazing. So you know, sometimes you got to give things a second try.
Speaker 1:That's a beautiful way to close this one up. I think so too. Give that machete a second try on Arnak, maybe that is a top tier. I'll ask Dallin about it. I bet you it's top tier it costs four coins.
Speaker 2:It has to be. It's totally top tier. Clayton, oh my god.
Speaker 1:We're going to finish that game. Okay, I bet you get the top row.
Speaker 2:Jared, I want to remind you that in the first round I only used one archaeologist. I think I've pretty much soiled myself.
Speaker 1:I don't know that there's any way to come back no, no, Actually you need to call Dallin then Maybe Dallin can coach you through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if he can get me out of this hole, I'm in. Then he really is the GOAT. He is the GOAT. Well, how does Travis end this thing usually?
Speaker 1:He has been Clay and I have been Jared and, uh, hit the. Hit that button, Clay. Thank you.
