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
1 Year of OGN: Our Top 10 Games (Part 1)
Our first anniversary episode celebrates a major milestone as we revisit and revise our top ten favorite board games, starting with positions 10 through 6.
• Only 20% of podcasts make it to the one-year mark, and we're excited to have reached this milestone
• Each host explains their methodology for selecting their updated top ten games
• We introduce each game with a creative "operation name" that captures its essence
• We compare how our preferences have changed since our initial top five list in episode two
• Digital implementations of games have significantly influenced our rankings and play experiences
• The tension between convenience of digital play versus the tactile joy of physical components
• Our next episode will cover our top five games and include reflections on our podcast journey
Join us next episode as we reveal our top five favorite games and celebrate our favorite moments from our first year of podcasting!
As always, come interact with us online, let us know if you have any feedback, and leave us a review/comment anywhere you get your favorite podcasts!
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night podcast, where the mission objective is to play more board games. And, gentlemen, we made it to one year. One year of podcasting, wow. This week is all about celebrating our one year. We're going to do our refresh of our top games. We haven't done that since episode two. We were still getting our feet underneath us at the time. We're going to revisit that, celebrate our one year anniversary, and we're going to get give some shout outs to those that we love that have made this possible. But joining me, as always, are my co-hosts, clayton, gable. Clay, how are you doing?
Speaker 2:I'm doing great. I have been up all night all week so excited for this episode to talk about our top 10 games. A lot of regrets from last time. I I think we did a decent job. I just I hate. You know these are important episodes. You know if people are going to find our podcast. This is your first time tuning in and you just clicked on this to see what our top 10 games are. Welcome to the operation game night troops. We're happy to have you here and we're excited to tell you about the games we love.
Speaker 1:Well said, and joining me as always, co-host is Jared Erickson. How you doing, Jared?
Speaker 3:Outstanding. I just want to echo what Clay just said. I don't want Gemma to listen to this in 30 years from now and just be absolutely shook that in 2024, when we started this thing, my top 10 list was just a little erratic. I mean, you're going to see a lot of consistency in today and our next episode as we go through our top 10. But I think it's a lot more measured, deliberate. It's a lot better. It's what a year's worth of podcasting will do for you. That's right. It's impressive. It's impressive.
Speaker 2:Consider yourself lucky if you just tuned in that you missed out on the last 50-some episodes. Just kidding, you should go back and check those out.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, there's some gold in there. We do have some gold in there. We were just getting our feet underneath us, still learning what this was going to look like, uh, but you know what I read the other day? Only 20 of podcasts make it to one year, and like 90 of podcasts don't even make it to 20 episodes. We flew past that a long time ago and now we're at one year. And here's to a thousand more years of the operation game night podcast.
Speaker 3:Thousand years, that's right, I'll write this into my will once our sentiences are downloaded into the ai mainframe, it will continue to make podcasts till the sun. Uh stops making nitrogen, or whatever it does.
Speaker 1:You know that's right and they're going to be beaming this show out into the you know, the far reaches of space for aliens to find holy cow. But today we're gonna do numbers 10 through 6 on our top 10 games list. We're going to do things a little differently this time. What we're going to do is we're going to give a little teaser, a little teaser of here's what this operation would be called if we were playing this game. We are Operation Game Night.
Speaker 1:We like to embrace our military roots a little bit, so we're going to name the operation A little bit. So we're going to name the operation little teaser. It'll be, you know, operation Thunder Road or something, and it's Vendetta Thunder Road. We're going to be a little more creative than that, but that's just an example. Oh, we are. We're going to name the operation and then we're going to talk about the game and why we love it, and we'll do 10 through 6 today, and then we will do, uh, 5 through 1 on thursday, next episode. So, uh, why don't you guys kind of give me a quick rundown like, how did you guys decide on your top 10 this time, clay?
Speaker 2:man, I went through all the games in my board game stats app, which is every game I've ever played in the past you know five years when I started doing that and just started plucking ones out that I thought had a chance because I wanted to do pub meeple. I think it's cool, I think it's like a fun exercise to do pub meeple. But if I just imported everything I ever played, um, I would be sitting there for three hours doing comparisons and it would probably make me want to scream. So I plucked out about 25 games that I thought you know these are ones that could make the list. And then I just ran them through Pub Meeple and I had to be honest with myself.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of changes this year. I think we've all had pretty stressful years, a lot going on, and some games that have, you know, perpetually been in my top 10 since I started board gaming, you know, eight years ago, are no longer there. They are off the list. I had to be realistic. If I haven't played you in two or three years, you probably aren't one of my 10 favorite games, although you still hold a special place in my heart. But yeah, mine's a mix of ones that I've had a good history with and have also still been enjoying and still want to get to the table.
Speaker 2:And ultimately, for me, I think my top 10 list is probably less important than other people's, because I don't like playing games that many times. Like, if I play the game 10 times, I generally am done with it, you know. So the more I play a game, the less I want to play it broad strokes. So these games are ones that have stood out and keep me coming back to them, even when most games I'm ready to find the next hottest thing after, you know, three or four plays. So that's kind of where I landed on my list, jerry. What about you?
Speaker 3:I'm a little, I think, opposite of you. I just keep cranking the same ones over and over again. So these ones are. They're pretty similar to our last list, but, um, the the list is not very broad. I did go to bga to you know check my sources because my online play is hot. Um, there's gonna be a whole lot of surprises here today, boys, but that's okay. But I did have some good reminiscing, you know, reminisce of some good times, good online play.
Speaker 3:Sometimes, when I was going through the list, I realized I miss some of these games really big time. I got to get these to the table again. So I hope that you're not going to be like, well, you didn't even play this game in the last year, because that might be true for one of these and I might talk about that, but I want to play it. So hopefully it's not disqualified from my top 10, because I don't think I did play it last year and I think that's a shame and I am tasking clay to make it happen to actually get it by the table. So, anyways, that's how I did, travis. What about you? You had a good meth methodology.
Speaker 1:I think mine was a blend of the two of yours. So I I thought about games that I would want to play. If somebody said like, hey, we are willing to play any game you want to play right now, what game would it be? And there are those that you know have stuck with me in the back of my mind as something that is great, that I have fond memories playing, um, that I would definitely want to get to the table again. But I also had to balance that with, like, this has been a weird year for all of us. This has been a weird year for me, with a new little rug rat in the house and not being able to play as many games. So I think I I went a little bit lighter. I did balance the games that I have played either in person or digitally.
Speaker 1:I think previously I had not really included digital. You know, we talked about one of the games the last time we did this. I was like I played this a thousand times digitally. But it's kind of a mix of like in-person and digital this time. But yeah, definitely lighter games this time. Definitely games that still I have a passion for and still that I you know are burning in my mind as wanting to play. But yeah, kind of a mix of the two of your answers, so let's just jump right in with the very first one. I think it's Jared up first with his number 10. Give us the name of the operation and then give us a little primer on the game.
Speaker 3:All right. Operation Golden Age I could see this game night being um very hot and heavy. Someone maybe shows up in dress and just saran wrap and a golden crown, I don't know. Golden age operation. Golden age um designer Jamie Stegmeyer. Stone Meyer games. Um, this is a sweet engine builder tapestry here. Did we get everything lined up correctly? Yes, clay, what a great production on the backstage.
Speaker 3:I just want to give you a quick shout out for that Civilization builder little tableau on your own little personal right in front of you. You're trying to puzzle together your own. You know civilization as you're growing yourself in these four other areas, like technology and military, um, but I, I just like going up in different tracks and, uh, competing against like other people, but I also like rolling. That die was that is that in the um, the technology area, where you don't know where. Science, your bonus science, yeah and uh, I just I like that randomness to it. I have a lot of fun on it. It's also on bga. I haven't cranked one out in a long time. I have done it and in the last year, though it just hasn't happened recently, so it has kind of gotten me excited about maybe inviting Mary to it, because I know Mary likes a good tapestry. I don't know if I've ever played this one in person, though.
Speaker 3:Oh well, you missed it, it is very low on my top 10, but I always get super stoked about this one and I love having your own player abilities. And so each person starts with their own player abilities, so that is also very hot to me. So Operation Golden Age hit me with a little tapestry, so that's where I'm coming in, hot at 10, awesome. Um, I don't know if I saw a tapestry anywhere else today, so give me some love. Anyone poking holes in this one?
Speaker 1:no, I, this is a great pick. I love this game. Uh, the only reason that I did not pick this one it was definitely up there. I had it on the list as, like honorable mentions, I love this one. I would love to play it in person. I've never played it in person and I know that, like, the components are beautiful and I, I just love. I love this game. I just wish I had more experience with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah I, I'm not gonna. This will show up later. Um, and let me tell you, for the two of you that haven't played it in person, I think you're really missing out, and if you had played it in person, I think it might jump a few spaces for production value alone, because this one is top notch. So that's all I'll say for now.
Speaker 3:A little foreshadowing. I like it Okay.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm up next and I have Operation Dominant Dominion. This is a game about building your own little estate, slash duchy, and you are doing this by rolling dice and selecting tiles that go onto your board to build out your own personal little village and earn points along the way. This is the one, the only.
Speaker 1:the castles of burgundy designers steffenfeld, the special edition by awakened realms, cannot be beat the reason this slips so far on my list this time is just because I and I mentioned this the last time that we talked about this. We've talked about this game plenty. Pulling this thing out of the big box from awakened realms is so daunting to me, Like it should not be this scary and like the components are so nice and you know, clay on our top production choices mentioned hit the little honeycomb that holds all the pieces together. And this should not be so daunting. And it is a phenomenally clean game. You know it's. It's got a nine point one rating on BGG right now. Like nine point one, Holy cow. Yeah, this thing is swinging for the fences. Awakened Realms always does does it up big when they go into their production.
Speaker 1:But I just find that pulling this off the shelf, especially if I have to teach it and play it at the same time, I just find it a little daunting. I have played hundreds of games of this online and I love that version. It's great. You don't get the clicky-clacky acrylic tiles from Awakened Realms, which kind of is disappointing, but I will always have a special place in my heart for castles of burgundy. It's so clean, it's so smart, it's like a. It's a tableau engine builder. Uh, without you know all the fuss of like something that's super crunchy. So castle of burgundy is my number 10. You'll hear more from me later.
Speaker 3:Excellent. Yeah, a little sad. I think I gave this one honorable mention, so I love this one, but for some reason the dice give me too much ick. But I don't know, I'm a big dice guy every other game, but maybe I need to play this one in person. I don't know if I've a big dice guy every other game, but maybe I need to play this one in person. I don't know if I've ever played Burgundy in person. This is just calling for September more and more that we need to do in person. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or gaming. So, jared, I need to get you up here for a weekend and we need to play this and tapestry in person, and we'll call it a good day right there.
Speaker 3:I think that might be. That might be all the time we have.
Speaker 1:That's a great day of gaming, though. Oh yeah, oh yeah, that's awesome. All right, clay, hit me with your number 10.
Speaker 2:Oh, for my number 10, we have operation flip or flop. So if you guys remember, you know the golden age of real estate reality TV. You're buying houses, trying to flip them, sell them for a profit, and that's exactly what it feels like you're doing in my number 10. Game which is for sale. Game which is for sale. This is a lighter entry on the list but I cannot deny it.
Speaker 2:It has been the small box game of choice for me when all else fails and I don't know what to do. I've got new people to play a game with and I need something that's going to be engaging, quick fun. I always grab for sale. I just love it's simple to teach, but it has more strategy than you would think. When those real estate cards come out and you have to decide, am I willing to spend a lot here? When do I drop out and just take what's left? How do I bid the proper amount? That when it comes back to me, other people have dropped out and just take what's left? How do I bid the proper amount? That when it comes back to me? Other people have dropped out and now I can get a card for a deal, and so that phase is a ton of fun.
Speaker 2:And then in phase two, when you have your real estate cards and you're trying to get the money for them and everybody's putting them down in that blind auction, you know you can make a two worth of 12 if you play it at the right time. You know, depending on what currency cards flip up, you can take your little toilet hut and you can turn it in for big money, and I just love that like tactical gameplay. That happens and it's quick and fun enough that I just played this twice yesterday. I taught my kids it for the first time and they loved it. Uh, the first auction game I've taught them, so it was. It was a lot of fun and this one will always be on my shelf and always be one that I reached to when I got people I need to teach a game to and want to get them hooked on the hobby.
Speaker 1:Made it pretty far in our small box bracket as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, if it wasn't for Mary, it was in the finals. Yeah, I was for sale, I wanted for sale to win that, but Mary came in and gave it the boost. So what are you going to do? We?
Speaker 1:have to defer to Mary. Yeah, she's really running the show here. Yeah, she's behind the scenes always. That's right, jared, hit me with your number nine all right, operation snake cauldron here is always brewing.
Speaker 3:Uh, the witch's brew is always hot. Um, it's always just bubbling away. Uh, you're always trying to make yourself something really sweet and mystical. I think it's our first bag that's made it onto the board. Right, it won't be the last. It won't be the last bag here at Operation Game Night. You know we love our bags. The designer, wolfgang Warsh.
Speaker 3:There's plenty of add-ons to this. Quacks of quedlinburg you guys have always been talking about quacks and I finally played it. I bought it on um on ebay during our um adventure here on Operation Game Night and I played it for the first time, I don't know, back in October or something like that, and I loved it. And I bought it used and it came with little inserts, little I don't know, 3d printed, somethings for the cardboard.
Speaker 3:So the extra little clicky clacky inside your baggy, baggy and something about your cauldron bubbling over, and but then also having the ability to dump in a quick potion to stop the cauldron from bubbling over. It always gives you the option, you know, to extend the life of your cauldron. But then then again it's kind of an engine builder right. The further you make your pot go, the more you can invest in your pot and then the more you can keep pulling out awesome little trinkets and sweetness from your ingredients bag to put in your cauldron. I loved it. I don't know if I've ever played it with your cauldron. I loved it. I don't know if I've ever played it with one of you two. Definitely haven't, have I.
Speaker 2:You haven't played it with me, no.
Speaker 3:So this one is definitely super fun. It's relatively quick-ish, which I do like as well, and if everything's already in the baggy bags, quick setup, I mean. And it's a big box, it's a bigger box game too, right. So I mean glad you brought up a great point there with your last one. I don't think I had too many little boxes in my top 10. I should be thinking about my little box love. But we're going big here, operation game night.
Speaker 1:But that was my number nine love it and I I appreciate with quacks that, uh, the different components of the potions have different uses. Like you can flip those like kind of spell cards or whatever. Yes, the the same component will do multiple things between you know, not between rounds, but between games. If you want to switch it up, you can make them do something else.
Speaker 3:I really like that about quacks it gives you that the spots vibe where you can, you know, tailor, make your gaming experience. If you play it enough, you know exactly the like, the fun uh to put in your game.
Speaker 1:Good shout out, alright. My next one is Operation Republic Resolve. We're talking battling for the galaxy. We're talking a reskin of an existing game. We're talking a reskin of an existing game. We're talking an expand alone version of Star Wars, the deck building game, clone Wars edition. This might be recency bias, I understand that, I get it.
Speaker 1:But I really enjoyed the original Star Wars deck building game. I thought it was super clean. I thought it was super easy to learn, easy to get to the table, small-ish box doesn't take up that much room on your shelf. And then I played the Clone Wars edition and I've played it two or three times since then and I just the factions in this one feel so much more balanced. The planet slash base abilities feel so much more balanced. The uh planet slash base uh abilities feel so much cleaner and so much more intuitive.
Speaker 1:Slash innovative uh man, this I, this one just shines like I. If you love the original star wars deck building game, highly recommend picking this one up. I have not tried to mix this one in with the original version, but this one stands alone and it is beautiful and clean and I really enjoy the deck building aspect of it, the battling aspect, the you know, putting together those perfect combinations of resources and attack and force manipulation to try and get an upper hand. Plus, just you know, if you're sitting there with a base with like five different capital ships all surrounding your base that are protecting it from enemy attack, feels good I. I can't say enough good things about this one.
Speaker 2:Star wars, the deck building game, clone wars edition yeah, you really got me fired up about deck building. After you talked about this the other day. I was like, oh man, I need to play a freaking clean deck builder here this is a.
Speaker 1:This is a super clean one and super easy to get to the table.
Speaker 2:Love this one oh yeah, gotta check that one out. All right, for my number nine, I have operation dusty dutchy. Oh, a little less glamorous of a title operation name than Travis gave this same game at his number 10 spot, but we got the Castles of Burgundy at number nine for me this has fallen significantly.
Speaker 2:I think this was maybe one or two last year for me and it might continue to fall. I I have played this game more than any other game hands down, bar none, and there's this horrible tension that exists with me in this game because I love the version on the table. It looks beautiful. Thank you, awakened Realms. It's amazing.
Speaker 2:So Board Game Arena made it so freaking easy to play this game that it's hard for me to and it's not even that hard to get out. I know we complain, but it really isn't that bad. It's like a five to 10 minute setup time Like it's not bad. But when you can zoom through those turns and it does all the scoring for you on Board Game Arena, it's pretty hard to compete with. And this is a game I could play literally any day of the week if I wanted to, because Mary always wants to play this game and I just I always say no, and it's not because I don't like it. I always like it when I play it. But I told you I'm always out there wanting to play something new. So you know the fact that I always say no to it and it it's just a great game and I will never not have it and I will continue to play it, but it doesn't excite me like it used to, but it's still such a good game.
Speaker 3:It's still in your top 10.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's still one of your true loves.
Speaker 2:Yeah, when you roll those two dice and you get to be clever and decide how you want to spend those two actions, do you want to place two? Do you want to try and make this combo or that combo? I love that that you can only plan so far ahead and then you just roll the die and you make it work, and that is awesome to me. So I figured I should say something positive about it, cause I kind of went on a little bit of a tangent about how much I hate this game.
Speaker 3:Even when we did our podcast with Vic, it felt like you were just like you started up here and then it's like all the reasons why you didn't want to give it the top shelf.
Speaker 1:I'm going to blame Vic for.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah, Vic put the slide on you the slide for Castles of.
Speaker 1:Burgundy on both of our lists. Yeah, it's true, dang it Vic. Dang it. Alright, Jared, hit me with your number eight.
Speaker 3:Number eight, operation Red Horizon. Just imagine you're on a foreign body floating through the universe and you're trying to develop this beautiful red planet, terraforming Mars. Is anyone surprised that I'm back on my engine building BS? I'm already just. I mean, I'm a.
Speaker 3:It's no surprise that I'm just spouting off engine builders here today, jacob Freilichs, but all these freaking Terraforming Mars games that I've played I super, love and enjoy Will not be playing this one at World Series of Board Gaming because I'll absolutely get my trash packed in because there's some. These Euro dudes are insane at playing these terraforming marks. But deck builder with a shared hex setup that you're all competing to build and terraform, how do you not love that? That's incredible. Um, I love that you're actually developing this. It's actually like geo, somewhat like true to how it's actually set up. Olympus mons is the biggest volcano in the world. That's on there, you know.
Speaker 3:But I have recently played one of the expansions to it and it was just way too long. It really lengthened it out. I can't remember exactly which one and I remember texting my friend. I was like make this stop. Like, please, like someone, someone needs to like, get to end game because you gotta, you gotta get the oxygen up and you gotta get the um the heat up so that you can actually terraform this thing. So I like the, the true base game of terraforming mars, and I do like the online adaptation because there's remember we've talked about this many times on the podcast my sausage fingers can't handle the little tiny cubes, so I like the online version. It's it's clean, keeps track of all your extra cards that you're playing. I love the engine building aspect of it, that you can have cards that you activate um I don't know man, this one's fun, um I really I, I love it.
Speaker 3:I thought that, uh, maybe the dice game had a chance to break top 10, unless you're planning on talking about that later on no, no, I I kind of considered like giving this one like a slash, like terraforming mars base slash, but I think that was speeding, so I just wanted to kind of like maybe talk terraforming mars family. Oh good, because the the dice game is is also equally awesome. I've only played it once, though, so I couldn't tell you break it into my top 10 if I've only played it once. That would be tough, um, but I had a lot of fun playing uh, the dice game because it's so much cleaner, gives you the same love and feel, but with less reading and stress.
Speaker 1:Awesome, good shout out, all right. Travi hit me. My number eight Operation, full Throttle.
Speaker 1:Oh, we're talking heat pedal to the metal yeah yeah, publisher is days of wonder, designer is asger garund and daniel peterson. Uh, this game is so nice and clean, super easy to get to the table, super easy to teach to anybody and it plays great at basically any player count. Uh, even if you're playing at low player counts and you have to do the other cars movement for them to kind of create that, that traffic, that that obstacle you have to navigate. It's also easy and clean. Um, the deck building aspect to it is simple. People understand that taking too much heat into their engine is going to clog up their deck.
Speaker 1:This game is deceptively simple as well. When you're navigating some of those tight corners and the race is close, it creates tense moments. I wish I had more experience with some of the expansions, but even just base game heat pedal to the metal is so nice and so easy. Um, you know I I love a good racing game. I have many on my shelf. But you know, heat pedal to the metal is one that you can literally teach and play with anyone and people get excited about it what's the strategy for hitting the corners I?
Speaker 1:what you'd have to ask clay, because he's the one that always wins. I'm like bringing up the the end of the of the pack. So that's a question for clay it's all about managing your hand.
Speaker 2:You gotta think a couple corners ahead. You know you want to. If you see you got a straightaway coming, you gotta keep those big number cards and try and figure out what gear you should be in so that you can play the right amount of cards, because you don't want to go through the corner in first or second gear and then have a straightaway that you gotta ramp up for and you can't get the fourth gear like. You gotta make it work because you can't are you afraid of the heat?
Speaker 3:you like the heat, you know I'll take, I take the heat, I take the heat until there's like one or two in there then.
Speaker 2:Then I get a little more cautious about it. But this just missed my top 10. It was number 12. So this is a great game.
Speaker 1:And I'll also say just real quick Days of Wonder just makes games, with so much joy in them, Like all of their productions, just look fun. Their artwork is beautiful and they're all so easy to teach and play. My other one for days of wonder that I was debating about to include was small world. Small world is just like. It's like a more tactical, tough decision-making risk and I, I, just I love days of wonders designs. I, I, I read their publications, you know, and they all just scream so much fun. All right, Clayton, hit me with your number eight.
Speaker 2:We got Operation Tempting Tiles for my number eight and in this game you are very tempted by the tiles because you think you know. Let me just see what one comes out of the bag next and let me see if I should declare raw or not. Because in raw it's a dead simple concept On your turn you're drawing a tile out of a bag or you're declaring an auction for all the tiles that are available and you're trying to collect different sets to score different points. But that push your luck element of it it's not necessarily a push your luck game. I think it's more. People would probably describe it more as auction and set collection. But there is always those moments in raw when all the raw tiles, the red ones that can make the round end, all the raw tiles, the red ones that can make the round end they're coming out hot and heavy and one person is still left in the round and they're getting greedy and they keep pulling tiles from the bag. All they got to do is pull one red tile and it's all over.
Speaker 2:They get nothing and it happens, yeah, and we everybody one way or the other. You know you're like you should stop, you should stop. Just take what's out there and you know inevitably it's mary and she doesn't stop and the round ends and you know she, she walks away into round two or three with next to nothing um to score points. But it's a great game. It's super simple to teach. You got those sun tiles that you know make the bidding interesting because you could see the value of everybody else's tiles and who can possibly beat you. So great game by Rainer Knizia. The 25th century edition is just beautiful. I, you know I got the metal coins and the big bag of wooden tiles, so I love this one coley's got this one, I think, right he does, he does I'm gonna have to.
Speaker 3:I have to jiggle, jiggle his uh, his door handle. Yeah, get in there, jared, I might need to jared, hit me with your number seven numero seven uh, operation midnight poor.
Speaker 3:if you're feeling a little frisky, come over to paverson games and designer dave beck get you some distilled. Yeah, um, okay, I'm still on my uh, still on my my BS here with the engine builders. You get your specialists that are helping you with unique things, with making the perfect cocktail, player abilities. It's got it all. You're picking up the perfect ingredients to make your perfect drink, and I have really enjoyed it. I know that you guys were talking about a couple episodes ago, the expansions to Distilled, so I might have to be looking into this one Again, one that I haven't played in person.
Speaker 3:The push-your-luck tension of this one also is just I like, I like it. You don't know what you're gonna be. You know shuffling into your, your deck builder kind of hand, and then you pull out something and do you have enough alcohol to make what you need or the right ingredients to make what you're you're trying to make, before someone else makes it too, because there's like this rush and race X aspect of Distilled. So that's why it's sneaking up on the list. I can't remember if it was on my list before, but it was hot and heavy, a lot of gameplay between the three of us, you know, last year, and I miss it, I miss it, I miss it guys. I wish we could. I wish we could sip on one while we create one, you know but yeah, this, this game.
Speaker 2:I was high on it, high on it, high on it, and then two times in a row I played this game in person and it went just so long I and then I got rid of it. I was like you know, I like what's going on with it, but that extra long play time just was inexcusable for me. I gave it one pass, but the second time it went over three hours for a midway Euro. I was like adios.
Speaker 3:Do you guys stuff the box, if you know what I mean. Like, do you put extra ingredients in there to make sure you can get your, your drink in to, because you have to pull out some ingredients, right you? You build up the alcohol and you have to sneak out two cards, right, yeah, you guys head and tail box or what oh, I stack fire, I stack it driving by.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, stack the box yeah, I'm not gonna not make a drink that I want to make oh, for you end up making whiskey or something like that when you want to make soju yeah, that's the thing is like that.
Speaker 1:That randomness, that like two was it two cards to get pulled out, that little bit of randomness is like just enough to keep that so interesting. It's not like because all of the ingredients are right there up top, like they exist right there on the market row. You can get the bare necessities that you need. But if you want to make your specialty drink, you got to roll the dice a little bit and like try and pack, uh, your pantry, you got to pack your pantry a little bit pantry with I went with operation midnight poor, trying to try to play on the midnight hammer like midnight poor.
Speaker 3:Oh jeez, I like it nice, I don't know it didn't quite hit, if you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I'm not all right. I'm not going to talk too much about this because it's going to come up later. But my number seven is Operation Epic Emissary. We're talking raw, I'm not going to belabor this too much. Artwork by Ian O'Toole in the 25th century version of this is phenomenal. The big, chunky, raw figurine feels so good. The thing is like three inches thick and it sits on the the table and you grab it when you say I declare raw. I really enjoy this. I played this last night to kind of refresh my memory a little bit and although we started out a little rough and started playing it wrong initially, we did a clean reset and the game flies by once you get it going. So I'm not going to belabor it too much raw.
Speaker 1:Phenomenal auction game. Uh, phenomenal theme for an auction game. The set collection makes it interesting. The only thing that I will add clay to what you said is if you don't get it going on round one on that first epic, you are hosed. It's so hard to recover if you do not take that early jump. So it encourages players to go in early on those auctions to really start like drawing as many tiles out as they can so that they can load the left side of their little table, that they're building, the little tableau, because the stuff on the left side stays between epics, stuff on the right side stays between epics, stuff on the right goes back in the bag and so like that kind of push and pull of like how early do I need to jump in? Where do I spend my sun tiles? It makes it super fun. I.
Speaker 2:I love that, like that pressure right off the bat I do find that sometimes with new people they have a hard time deciding, like when to declare the auction, like they either never do and then end up getting nothing because the round ends, or they declare it when there's like two tiles out there and they, you know, they, they go out like in the first three turns they have in the round and then they just sit there for the rest of the round. So I think it takes a couple plays to kind of understand that dynamic of like when to pull the trigger on that, that auction. But it's, it's still a great game, oh yeah agreed, all right, uh, clay hit me.
Speaker 2:My number seven is Operation Hobbit Mutation. Oh, because there once was an amazing game and then it mutated into an amazing game about hobbits and it made it all the better. We're talking Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle-Earth Jared and I just played this when he was up a couple weeks ago, and I love two-player games. I play a lot of two-player games and this has been my favorite two-player game. It just cleaned up Seven Wonders Duel in all the right ways for me.
Speaker 2:I love the three different victory conditions that can immediately end the game and just trying to battle that tension between the other player. You know, you see they're climbing on the ring track. You want to do something else, but you can't. Very well, let them keep grabbing those ring cards, so you know they're going to get to the end. So it's just, you know, constantly fighting that battle on three fronts and trying to decide what card to grab when, oh my god, it's such a good 30 minute two-player game with an awesome theme for those of us who enjoy the token universe yeah, we've got a couple of reskins on our top tens yeah, keep putting new skins on things.
Speaker 2:I'm all about it awesome.
Speaker 1:Well said, clay jared, last for this episode.
Speaker 3:You're number six so operation knuck if you buck. By aeg designer uh D Clare. If you're a fan of sailing the high seas and not afraid of loading the cannons and dropping little tiny blocks down into the chutes, dead Reckoning is your boy. I have so much fun with this game, even playing on Tabletop, tabletop simulator. I still got the same vibes like even when I had to, like you know, with my mouse, select and grab little cubes to drop down the um virtual giant cardboard um pirate ship to to see who wins the battles. It's so much fun. Well, knock if you buck. That's just kind of what we say when we're trying to blast each other when we're playing dead reckoning. And it is so much fun. You explore these new islands and you're just so incentivized to go blast each other with your cannons. A little bit of uh engine building. Well, I don't know, depends on how you play clay. Have you won?
Speaker 2:I think I won one time and I was also getting a lot of uh bonus cards lasting well.
Speaker 3:You have a lot of fun if you blast I blast.
Speaker 2:I was having a good time holding up on my island and just making it produce it's true, gathering coins you could be, yeah, and then shuttling them back to port.
Speaker 3:It's like a choose your own adventure. Yeah, what kind of pirate do you want to be? Do you want to be a commercial pirate or do you want to be a roughneck who strikes fear on everybody else throughout the seven seas? So huge fan of this one, never going to fall out of my top ten. I've said it here today Wow, it's on the 17th of August, so make it happen.
Speaker 1:Not our last sandboxy game either. Ooh yes, travis, what's your last one for today? All right, so make it happen. Not our last sandboxy game either. Ooh yes, sure, we'll see. Travis what's your, what's your last one for today? All right, number six, operation broken oath. Oh, okay, that's a good name.
Speaker 1:We're talking betrayal at house on the hill. Oh, I, I've always had a lot of love for this game is like one of the very first board games that I really got into. I think it was one of the very first ones that I owned and it was not without its complaints and its gripes. Initially, you know, the components were not great. The rules were a little convoluted, the players felt mismatched. You know you would play all these different times and still experience some of the same haunts every single time. And then this year I had the opportunity to get the newest version I believe it's the third, third edition and it cleans up so much of those issues. Components are nicer. You can pick cards that will like be the basis of your haunts. So you can like have a select group of haunts to choose from. So you can like really vary it up and make sure that you're not getting the same haunt over and over and over again. They streamlined a lot of the rules.
Speaker 1:Man, I love this game. It's like adult Clue. You are running around this house exploring, building out a map. The map is different every single time and then when the haunt is triggered, it's immediately like tension time. Somebody is the bad guy. Everybody knows it. And that mismatch and, uh, asymmetric wind conditions just makes this game shine. I I really enjoy this game. I think it's a really smart design. Uh, some of the expansions for it have gotten varying reviews, but they've got something for everybody in this. If you like kind of horror-style games, this is a good one to pick up. Betrayal at House on the Hill, clayton last one for the day.
Speaker 2:For my number six, we have operation overkill, because this game just way over does it for what it is. We have the foundations of rome by emerson matsuchi, published by arcane wonders.
Speaker 2:This is everything I want a light to medium weight game to be Just over the top produced.
Speaker 2:I feel like I'm playing this amazingly big game experience and yet it is super easy to teach.
Speaker 2:It's got simple, engaging mechanisms where you got these lots you're trying to buy and then you get to place your buildings out on a shared map, and where you place your buildings matters for everybody else because you can score points for adjacency to other people's buildings.
Speaker 2:It's just such a simple concept in such a lavish production. It would not be this high on my list I will admit it right now gameplay-wise, it would not be this high on my I will admit it right now, gameplay wise, it would not be this high on my list. But when you get to take out your personal player tray from this four by four box and I'm talking, yes, I'm talking four feet by four feet box and you take it out and you sit in front of you and you see all your beautiful buildings that you get to place out on the board, it's a big winner for me and I love foundations of rome I honestly this one was one that I wrote on my list for consideration because that production and that that game is so nice and clean and it's beautiful to look at.
Speaker 1:But then I'm like, how many times have I actually played this and how many times will I ever get to play this? Because I don't want to own a box this large. But but man, this production is just out of this world. It is insane. And when you get that city all put together, it looks like an actual city skyline. It's, it's really cool. I really like. I like this design.
Speaker 3:You just have to make a pilgrimage to up to Pennsylvania, cause I don't think that thing travels too well.
Speaker 1:No way, no way, I don't think it even travels like down the street, that thing is a corner.
Speaker 2:I won't be bringing it. I won't be bringing that to a world series of board gaming.
Speaker 1:That's for sure Awesome. Okay, so this has been number 10 through six on our top 10 list. Uh, our next episode, we will hit number five through one, the big finale of our top ten list. We're going to revisit some memories. We're going to talk about our favorite moment in Operation Game Night.
Speaker 3:History Are we going to shoot t-shirts out of a cannon? Maybe we probably should. We probably should try, we probably should. We don't even have t-shirts Wait, we have a few for ourselves.
Speaker 2:Thanks Amanda. Thank you, amanda.
Speaker 3:We'll save our shoutouts for next time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we'll have to get on our merchandising here very shortly, but anyways, this has been Operation Game Night Podcast Celebration of one year. I have been Travis, he has been Clay, he has been Jared. We're out, thank you.
