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
Special Ops: Jerry’s Board Game Comeback
Jerry returns with stories of a surprise Azul date night, a rediscovered $100 Vegas mini-game, and fresh takes on gateway games that can coax non-gamers into regular play. We swap strategies for The Quest for El Dorado, pitch Redwood for photographers, and plot the path to Arnak.
• Azul wins as a fast, colorful date night gateway
• Travel-sized components and the power of quick replays
• Ruins and trick-taking nostalgia with upgrades
• The $100 World Series mini-game and what to do with it
• Pax Unplugged plans and birthday bankroll jokes
• Redwood as a photography-themed next step
• El Dorado hot takes on tempo, terrain, and interaction
• How to ladder from Azul to light deck-builders to Arnak
• Magical Athlete’s chaos as a mood reset
• New neighbor game night and keeping momentum
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Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. Oh my god. For those of you that are not watching the YouTube video, Jared just did a dramatic turnaround. He was adjusting his patch wall that's behind him. But today we have a full house. Travis, that's me. Clayton, that's him. Jared, that's the other guy. Full house for OGN. And we are going to catch up with Jerry. Jared, we haven't talked to you in a while. And those catch-ups have been largely over the fence. You've been a busy, a busy boy. And the people want to know what Jerry has been playing. And we never really got your full thoughts on World Series and board gaming. I know you've been playing games with Clay. I know you've been having date night playing a little Azul. So, Jared, fill us in. What's going on with Jerry's world?
SPEAKER_02:I mean, this this episode is going to be uh essentially a Jerry casserole, if you will. Um, it's gonna be all the the best hits of Jerry uh and his board gaming adventures since September. September 22nd. Wow, wow, there's some beautiful things that went on in these last couple weeks, and hopefully the quality of the content that I'm providing our viewers is a little bit better. I am in the closet. I'm in the closet, guys. Sorry, yeah, uh it's hard for me to say that. Uh hopefully there's not a little child that comes and uh breaks in through the through the door. Uh I'm trying to avoid any kind of interruptions, I guess. And last week we were we were live from the YMCA, and we all know how that ended. Um, I don't know how the programming of our episodes will go, but the over the fence was uh to be desired. I don't even know if it's gonna make the final cut. I I think they're probably just gonna scrap it because I didn't make it to the end. So yeah, I don't know. That's just that's the way we that's the way we do things around here. But um I mean, I guess the way I want to run this one, I I mean, leader, dear leader, how how do you want to run this one?
SPEAKER_01:Uh that's Supreme Leader, and uh oh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Just want you to go off the top of the dome. I wouldn't have it any other way with you on the podcast. I mean a little a little Jerry Spice in this casserole. So just wanna talk about any game that is on your heart right now.
SPEAKER_02:The honestly, the highest highlight of my gaming, honest career, maybe, gave me a gaming keep it PG, uh highlight of my career. Uh Adri was like, uh, do you want to play a board game? My wife initiated no board gaming. Okay, you know how much I've been in a drought lately, boys. Yes, and my wife comes to me and wants to board game me.
SPEAKER_01:It's that's what every guy that plays board games wants, is for their spouse to initiate board games.
SPEAKER_02:Reciprocate and initiate. It was insane last night. Um, we popped off on some Azul, travel-sized Azul. Those little chiclets were about the size of my fingernail. I could not really get a hold of them, they were slipping everywhere. But I had a blast, honestly. It was just one-on-one. Gemma was down. Um, and we we got through two rounds. I taught her how to play Azul, she's never played Azul.
SPEAKER_00:That was gonna be my question. I I didn't know if she had played that one before because I know her, like our spouses as well, and a lot of other gamer spouses are a little bit on the fence about learning new games, so she she did it, she learned it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah. And and so I this is what happened last night. I said, Do you want azul, a cutesy, colorful, kind of organization-based game, or do you want to play uh this airplane side-by-side? Um what's that one?
SPEAKER_00:Sky Team.
SPEAKER_02:Sky Team. Yeah, she's like, I want to be able to talk to you. And she because she knows my adventures with Tanner and you know him getting upset with me for not selecting the right die and not being able to discuss between you know what is happening between underneath my cockpit shield. So um also hashtag shout out to Tanner. He did get his wings since we've uh since we've really reconvened. Congratulations, Tanner. Tanner's got his wings. Tanner. Um but so she went with uh Azul. Uh teach teach right into it, and she she's got a brain for it. Like, she's got that artsy, she's a photographer, so the colors really she was able to see them and like really grab onto the organization side of it. And she was dropping 30 and 40 points the two games that we played on a the first time she played. I was like, wow. I I mean when I was playing them, I did not understand the significance of how to like lay them out. And I I think it was just two, you know, it's just two players, so maybe the points go higher. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Hold the phone. What did you say you played? Uh initially I was less impressed because you said two rounds, and I thought you meant you got through two rounds of a single game of Azul. No, no, but do you mean to tell me to completion? You played two, yeah. You went two times to completion.
SPEAKER_02:Wow, all the way horizontal. Once you get the you know, five on a single horizontal row, you you stop, you score, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you play score the run it back award.
SPEAKER_02:This is a run it back, an Age run it back. This is the first time we've given an Aidri run it back medal. Wow.
SPEAKER_00:I mean probably the most the hardest to get. That's like the medal of honor.
SPEAKER_02:That's close to the medal of honor. That's up there. That's pretty high up there. So I I could not I could not end this episode without getting in that story that happened last night. I am on top of the world. Um, but some of the other things that we've been working on is a game that we picked up when the three of us were together. The beautiful uh game Ruins. Yep. I mean, anytime you get a sleeved card game and you can upgrade these cards, I mean, it's like an RPG, mini RPG in card form. Trick taking kind of the Great Dal Moody comes from back in the day. You know, shout out to my my babysitting family. They just touched me right here in my heart. And uh we we got that to the table last night or yesterday when Cole and Clay were in town uh for for a baby shower, and we got it when we were in in the room together in the uh in the awesome Bellaggio hotel room when Clay was sleeping on the the uh chair bed.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know if we fully debriefed the chair bed either, but um we need to post a picture of that to our socials because yeah, people need to see the living conditions that Clay is willing to put up with just to play some board games on his birthday, no less. Incredible.
SPEAKER_02:So that leads me to my next point of board games or gaming like things that I've played or am in the process of playing, uh which uh is bad on me, but I sent a photo to the group this morning. You all received it in my backpack during the World Series of Board Gaming, Cole had given me a gift I was supposed to give to Clay for his birthday. What actually was inside of that gift, it was just a it was just an envelope that said World Series of Board Game mini game. I put it in my iPad for safekeeping. I didn't want to bend it, I didn't want to break it. I honestly thought it was a puzzle. Okay, I was really confused. Well, inside of that envelope was a hundred dollar bill and express uh rules to a mini game of us betting and having a joy-filled time in on the strip. You know, you're only the the first player was gonna be Clayton. He uh he was gonna take his money, he was he had a decision to make. Do we go to the bar or do we hit the tables? There's no casino, there's no uh slots, it was only it was only gonna be uh table games, and he could keep going until he felt comfortable, and then he turns it over to the next active starting player, and we just keep going until we become obviously millionaires because of our because of our gambling prowess. Step two, stonks. Stonks. So I have started, I've repented for my sins. We opened that envelope together when uh Cole and Clay and I were together, and I realized how much of an idiot I am and uh did not open it or give it to Clay at the right time. So I apologize. But that is another awesome mini game that is going on for Operation Game Night. Um I don't know what's are we going to York? Are we doing sports betting?
SPEAKER_01:I don't know. We'll go to all the sports bars in York. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. It'll be great.
SPEAKER_02:So but anyways, thanks, Cole. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:The thought was amazing. We're gonna we're gonna see it to execution in some form or fashion.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's right. Or, you know, we're gonna double it and wait till next year when we go to World Series of Board Gaming. I don't know. There you go. Let us know what you think we should do with the hundred dollars. I'll tell you what we're not gonna do. Put it on the Steelers because they've been hurting us lately. Yeah, um, yeah, let's not talk about that. Let's not talk about that.
SPEAKER_01:Uh Jared, are you going to Gen Con with Clayton here? Uh Pax Unplugged. I'm sorry, not Gen Con.
SPEAKER_02:So yesterday he did put it on my calendar. Okay. It was there was an opening. Right? Yeah, he yeah, it was erased. It was promptly erased.
SPEAKER_00:I got the feeling when I put it on there that it was like one of those things where he looked, he didn't want to say, Hell no, I'm not going to that, but he gave me the eyes, like, yeah, that's not gonna happen. And so I just erased it.
SPEAKER_02:You're going with Mary, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. That's a shame.
SPEAKER_01:A hundred dollars can buy a lot of cheesesteak in Philadelphia, and you just passed up on that opportunity to continue to celebrate Clayton's birthday. Dang, I'm always celebrating.
SPEAKER_00:I celebrate my birthday till Christmas, and then I celebrate Christmas till my birthday. Yep, and in that form and fashion, I never run out of money to buy new games.
SPEAKER_01:That's right. That's right. Yeah, Jared, I have an impromptu board game pitch for you that I think Adrian might be interested in. Hit me with it. Before I left, I had every intention of giving you a game called Redwood. Have you heard of this? Are you familiar with this? No, no, there's a game called Redwood where you play as photographers walking through the forest trying to capture animals in your site picture. Okay, it's like a positional-based movement game where you have this like kind of cone of seeing, and you're trying to get the animals in the right spots. Okay, and I have a copy of it, and it's actually not all that expensive for when you have a windfall of birthday money. Uh I still have birthday money. I'm I clicked buy a copy on board game geek, and it looks like it's 3278 on Amazon. So for your consideration, it's a photography game that I think you might get a uh at least a nibble on.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, now that Adri's got the got the itch. She's got the bug.
SPEAKER_02:What is the next step from Azul? What should I give her next?
SPEAKER_00:More Azul.
SPEAKER_02:Should I go straight to Redwood? Or should I give no? Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Play Azul until she's sick of it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's that's probably the real thing.
SPEAKER_00:Make her beg for it Azul every night.
unknown:Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01:That's probably the real answer. Um, because Redwood, the playtime is 45 minutes, but the weight is only 2.16.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Manageable, not impossible. I know she likes her faster games. Get in, get out, get a run-it-back award. Uh, but yeah, the the right answer is probably just drive Azul into the ground until everyone is sick of it, and then you give her something else. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm thinking of hitting her with charcuterie next. We haven't really given charcuterie a good hard look. We just got it for our charcuterie night. Callback to episode probably like eight or something like that. That was a long time ago. Um, so I don't know how it is at two, but but here's my last uh thing that I did want to what?
SPEAKER_00:It's a it's like man. I don't even know that it plays at two. I think uh I split you choose games, or you know, they're tough at two. Probably two two players is probably not the ideal count for that, but check me on it, try it. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:It might it might be I remember you played it with Mary, and it's like because you do like a double double choose or something like that, and it gets weird or something like that. But but here's here's what I'm gonna say wild thing happened to me on Halloween night. Here I am, trick-or-treating in the beautiful state of Virginia. Little did I know I'm trompsing down the street, literally a block from where I live. And there, someone's like, hey Jared, is that you? Comes up, gives me a hug. Someone that I used to teach at the prep school with is my next door neighbor, not next door neighbor, just but a one block down the road. Um she was uh the soccer coach at the prep school, and I taught math, and she's still in the military. She's gonna come over for a game night on I think Friday night or Saturday night. So at least promise two games, and Adri will be there too. So guys, I think we have we have hit the inflection point. Operation game night is blasting off, and my gaming career is also getting back into fifth gear. So it's all coming together.
SPEAKER_00:Sparks are lit now, Jared. I wanna I want to hear more about games you played with me. I specifically, I was very excited when you came up to Pennsylvania to play Quest for El Dorado with you because you're a little bit of a deck builder boy, yes, and this is Kenitia's little deck building racing game. Oh, yeah, maybe on the lighter side for your usual fare, but I was just curious if here on the podcast you could tell us your thoughts if you can remember them from that experience.
SPEAKER_02:No, no, I'll give you the hottest of the hot takes here. I mean, it's always when I get a deck builder going, I love drawing extra cards, so I don't remember being able to draw extra cards unless I upgraded to certain cards that did let me draw extra cards. So I am remembering now. Yes, so I did love it because there was a compass. There was a compass, that's right. So um, as we raced across this unique landscape, like that was another part that I really liked, is you could change the way you race, and like um I'm sure there's not infinite amounts, but a lot of different ways you could organize your race to the end. And uh, and you have to use the these different icons to like pay your way to travel, like, oh, you're gonna go across a river, so you need to use like a paddle, or you're gonna cut your way, machete your way through the forest, um, or you've got to pay your way to get through these expensive areas like the cities or whatever. I thought that was incredible, and then having to weigh the the decisions between, well, I could pay my way through this way, or you know, invest in more cards because right you use the the coins to invest in the cards, right? Oh, yeah, and I I absolutely loved it. Um I had a a huge blast with it and like trying to figure out my next steps and like maybe two and three moves down the road, and like the pathways, also the interaction between the the people, too, because you could see Cole was going a certain way, and then Clay was also, you know, he was right on my tail as well. And if I didn't beat him to a certain gap, then I'd have to go around another way, which I knew I didn't have those resources, so I had to have like kind of throttle myself and like again it was like uh you know cost-benefit analysis. I definitely gave up some investments I could have made on the cards, but I had to get in the right position and it paid off in the end. As I remember, I think I did win, but I I believe so.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I believe so.
SPEAKER_02:It was it was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_00:Um I've been digging that one. I've been playing that one a lot more. I just think it's it's such an easy game to wrap your head around because like inherently it just makes sense that you have a machete card, you move through machete space, like it it does make intuitive sense, it's easy to teach, and I I'm glad we got to play it together because I think that's one that you should think about adding to your arsenal if you're trying to introduce new players to what deck building can be, because I think that is a good first deck builder.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, we should do a series. How do we get Adri to be an Arnak player?
SPEAKER_00:You should come up with a freaking battle plan.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, all nine map out map out her gaming career, and we'll just check off the games as she plays them down the list till actually she wouldn't even know we're doing it like while we're you know recording these episodes because Lord knows she's I mean I think she probably like downloads them and doesn't even listen to them, but um at least she's doing that, you know.
SPEAKER_02:She's she's helping out the pod. Uh but yeah, that one. Oh man, it's so good. I I would consider it, yeah. Yeah, I'll have to maybe I'll get a used copy. I don't know. That one I love that one, but also another highlight of playing with you, Clay, was the uh the big baby.
SPEAKER_00:Big baby, magical athlete. Yes, I love that how Cole came around on that game. I could tell when I was telling him about playing it, he was kind of like, mmm, this sounds stupid, and it is stupid, but he he was clamoring for more afterwards, and he was clamoring about it yesterday.
SPEAKER_02:So I know, yeah, you want to get those long legs out, yeah. But anyways, thank you for thank you for letting me give an update for my gaming career uh for October and beginning of November.
SPEAKER_01:And it's it's been we gotta give the people what they want. Everyone's clamoring for more Jared, and we are always going to deliver more Jared when requested.
SPEAKER_00:He returned from the crypt in over the fence, but we we had to get talking games here with you.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's right. You delivered. Thank you. His his gaming career starting to snowball a little bit. We need to get him back, get his feet back underneath him back on the pod.
SPEAKER_02:Keep this momentum going. I'm out of the YMCA, back in the closet, you know.
SPEAKER_00:Back in the closet with your boys. That's right.
SPEAKER_01:The closet where we belong. All right. That's right. If you have gaming recommendations for Jared, if you have a grand plan on how to get his wife into playing Arnak, if you have a game that you would want to play with Jared, go ahead and write it in the comments. Let us know, hit us up on Instagram. We love hearing from you. If you are listening or watching this episode, go ahead, like, subscribe, share the podcast, and give Jared some love. Just give him some love in the comments because he needs it. And we back at it. Did we do it? We did it. We did it. This has been Operation Game Night. I have been Travis, he's been Clay, he has been the one and only Jared Erickson, and we're out. Thank you.
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