Travis is Back and Clay Has Opinions About 38 Games | June Deployment Report

They're back. Travis survived the move. Clay survived a month without his leader. The long form format is officially back by popular demand — and to celebrate, Clay drops a full military-tier deployment report on 38 games across 69 plays in June.

Plus: Travis debriefs on Lairs and Deep Regrets (Lovecraftian push-your-luck fishing game — yes it's as good as it sounds), a shoutout to Jared playing Root and Skull King somewhere overseas, Clay's new job with the National Wrestling Coaches Association, Travis settling into Space Force, and a mutual vote on who is most likely to become the grouchy old gamer shaking his fist at the clouds.
 Spoiler: it's Clay.

Chapters:
 0:00 — We're back! Long form returns
 0:57 — The return of Travis & apologies for the solo month
 2:41 — Rolling Deep & Eureka Kickstarter talk
 3:16 — Like, subscribe, leave a review (seriously though)
 5:18 — Travis debrief: Lairs with the Adventure Pack
 13:36 — Travis debrief: Deep Regrets & Deeper Regrets
 24:06 — Shoutout to Jared playing Root overseas
 25:18 — Clay's June Deployment Report — 38 games, 69 plays
 26:33 — Dishonorable Discharge tier
 34:23 — Honorable Discharge tier
 43:34 — Reserves tier
 47:28 — Active Duty tier
 58:09 — Special Forces tier
 1:01:47 — Over the fence: new jobs, the move, life updates

Transcript

Back To Long Form

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Welcome to the Operation Game and I podcast. We are back, and better than ever, and back to our new format. We are doing long format podcasting now. Clay, how do you feel about that?

SPEAKER_02 0:26

We're doing it now again. I mean, we're doing it now again. This is how we started. We made a pivot. We tried to, you know, make a strategic pivot to something we thought might work a little better. But you know, we've heard feedback from our friends of the pod, and many of them have said they miss our old longer form podcast. So, hey, you guys are the ones listening. So we're gonna give you what you want. And honestly, I don't know that we had the chops for the dedicated debriefs. I mean, we're just a couple guys that like talk about games. Like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:57

More of a hangout podcast than like an actual review podcast, but like you know, our opinions are kind of still valid.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Yeah, they're really valid, but this is the best way to do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:08

Man, I I missed you guys. I missed talking about board games with you. It's been too long, but thank you to all of our friends of the podcast that came on and filled in. They all did phenomenal. Uh, you know, I only listened to the first one where within the first 15 seconds, Clay, you're like, wow, Travis and I have nothing in common anymore because he plays solo games. So I tuned out after that and unsubscribed. Haven't listened since.

SPEAKER_02 1:34

Well, I'm surprised we still have a podcast after you let me have the reins for a whole month. So this is this is a miracle that we made it through. And yes, thank you to everybody that was out there. I'm sorry for the shade I threw your way. I was I was just hurting.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

I was then I was you know, I was kind of chuckling to myself because I know that when Bytewing announced a new solo game, you were champing at the bit to back that thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:55

Yeah, I backed it.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Oh, yep, there we go. Okay. Through solo gamer Clay Gable.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yes, I you know if I trust anybody, I really think my gaming tastes align with Nick of Bitewing games. Like when I listen to his top tens and I listen to him talk about games, we have very similar um palettes around gaming. So if he likes this solo

Kickstarter Solo Game Temptations

SPEAKER_02 2:20

game and it's Bilattro inspired, but you got me pumped up about Bilatro. And we're talking about Rolling Deep. Let's, I mean, we've been beaten around the bush. Rolling Deep should be live on Kickstarter still. And it has an add-on that's a Reiner Kenizia solo game called Eureka. I was gonna back it. It was it it happened. I'm not proud, but I did it.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

No brainer, no brainer. Uh well, speaking of me unsubscribing, if you are listening out there and you could do us a favor and uh subscribe to the podcast on YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, wherever you get your podcast or social media feeds, uh go ahead and give us a like, give us a follow, give us a subscription, go ahead and uh juice that algorithm a little bit for us because we would appreciate it. And now that we're doing long form episodes, we can only keep doing this as long as you keep supporting. So please share the podcast and uh give us a like and subscribe if you would.

SPEAKER_02 3:16

Yeah, drop a review too. Yeah, yeah, that's great. That might make me happy. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 3:20

You get bonus podcast points if you leave a review, and maybe I'll read a review on the on the air. So um go ahead and do that for us, help us out. We would be uh really appreciative of your efforts. But

Subscribe Reviews And Why It Helps

SPEAKER_00 3:33

alas, today we are getting back to old format. So we're gonna do a quick debrief, then we're gonna do our special operation. Calais, go ahead and hit up with a special operation for the day.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

You know, a few months ago, I don't even remember when it was, time has flown and dragged simultaneously while Travis has been gone. But one of our last episodes together, we talked about being in a

The Slump Busting Mission Brief

SPEAKER_02 3:55

board gaming slump. And today I want to talk about how I powered through that slump in uh June. I I had like somewhat like 70 plays, played 38 different games. So I'm just gonna do a rapid fire through all those games I played. And I've got like a little fun military-themed ranking system that I'm gonna do for each of them. I didn't run this by Travis yet, but essentially we're going like they're they're troops in our military, and the games that I did not like are getting dishonorably discharged. The games that were okay, but not for me, they get an honorable discharge. Then we have the reserves. I'm keeping those around, but I'm not really reaching for them that often. Active duty are the games that are in steady rotation, gonna keep playing them. And then we have our special forces, those are the games that are at the top of my tier list right now. That if I get a chance to play them, I'm going to take that anytime and I'm gonna keep pushing them on people. So we're gonna go through 38 games. I'm gonna give them an assignment into one of those categories, have some fun with it.

SPEAKER_00 5:04

That sounds great. I'm excited for these special rankings because when we first pitched this idea, it was like would play again, might play again, will not play again. So I like this. I like this little flare that you got on it. I love flare. And then finally, uh, after our mission objective special operation, what did I just say it was? You said special operation, it can be after after our special operation, then we will uh go over the fence and we'll talk about what we have been doing outsort outside of board gaming. So, Clay, I know that you're gonna save a lot of your debrief for the special operation, but do you have anything else that you want to shout out that you've been playing?

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Yeah, pretty much everything that I've been playing, I'm gonna talk about in our mission objective special operation segment. But I think um I am eager to hear about what you've been playing, Travis, because you've been off the grid. I've been podcasting alone. I can only assume you've been playing no games because you've been moving and getting settled in a new place, but you you may have played something. Tell me about it.

Lairs Gets Better With Expansions

SPEAKER_00 6:13

Yeah, so not true, first off, thank you very much. Um, so I have uh checked out Layers, which you and Tiff did a great job talking about on your very first episode while I was away. Um if you want to hear the in-depth kind of ins and outs of layers, go back and listen to that podcast, give Clay and uh our dear friend Tiff a shout out because they did a great job recapping that game and all of its uh you know pros and cons. Uh but got a chance to check it out. Wholeheartedly agree with your assessment that it needs expansions, it needs those expansions to really shine. That base game, like you open it up and on page one, page one of the rule book, it says, like, hey, some of this stuff is for the adventurers pack, so maybe just ignore that part. And you're like, all right, come on, like yeah, just tell it as a big box or something. I you know, I love and hate my big boxes, but uh man, when you include the expansions to that game and it starts doing things a bit differently and throws a couple more mechanics in there, uh, I thought it was pretty good. I I don't know how much play time it'll get in the long run, um, but I did quite enjoy that game.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

So you have you you've dipped into the adventurers pack? A bit, a bit. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 7:37

How far have you dipped? Like, I don't know, maybe one or two, like hardly any. Like okay. We've been a little busy, so it's it's not like we've uh had so much time to play games. Um, but yeah, just barely dipped my toe. So I don't want to like give an in-depth review. This is more like cursory first glance at that type of stuff, but I do know I very quickly you can realize that that game comes alive when you start adding in adding in that other stuff.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Yeah, I so I'm gonna spoil part of my my uh deployment report here, but I Lairs is one of the games that I played several times this past month, and I have gone through the entire adventurous pack now. When I did the episode with Tiff, I had only played base game. Okay, I was blah. I was like, okay, it was good. Like I could definitely see that this is a cool system. I want more. I got more. I went out, and just by happenstance, I couldn't find the adventurous pack anywhere online. I was looking everywhere for it to buy it, nowhere. You could find deeper dungeons, but not the adventurous pack. I'd given up. I was like, this is just gonna have to sit here for a while. Um, because I wasn't really interested in going back to the the single blob monster scenarios over and over again. Um, but I walked into the local game store here, and they had the adventurous pack. Like they didn't, they didn't have layers, they didn't have the base game, like just one copy of the adventurers pack was sitting in this comic store west, and I grabbed it and I've since opened everything up, played several times um through it, and it it is in my special forces, like spoiler alert for the thing, but it gosh, I enjoy that game so much. It I just love that you know, building of the dungeon and trying to, I mean, there's really not a lot to it. Like, I what I said to Tiff was like, I I I just like to move as quick as I can through the dungeon, like I'm always just hustling, hustling, hustling all through. And to me, that feels broken. I win this game a lot. You know, people that are just like creeping around, like, why would you ever creep? I'm just I'm just hustling. Um, because you find out more of the dungeon, but I like that process. I like finding out what's around the next corner, and I like you know, the the treasure cards get more interesting, and the ability to find that junk all over the dungeon makes it interesting, and then eventually you can kind of craft your character a little bit by getting different colored cubes that you get to pick and you can upgrade the cubes mid-game. You probably haven't gotten to that part yet, but it it just adds so much more, and yes, definitely keep playing. But what have you played this with Rachel?

SPEAKER_00 10:29

Uh, yes, that's why I don't know if it will get a whole lot more plays. Um, she's not a fan. Uh man, I I don't know. It's just a certain flavor that really shines with her, and uh I don't know if this one is gonna make the cut, you know. Yeah, um, there's like especially because base game is pretty easy to pick up, there's not a whole lot going on. Uh, but then when you start adding more, you you have like more depth to the game and more interesting decisions to make, more interesting mechanics, and then that adds a little bit more complication, like a little bit more, and that's like the tipping point there is what I gotta navigate. So um, yeah, we'll see.

SPEAKER_02 11:12

Yeah, I I hope you uh yeah, I'm lucky. My kids both like this game, so yeah, and and they're pretty well-versed gamers now, so it's not that big of an ass for them to to play this, and you know, so I was able to get a bunch of plays in and kind of really fall in love with it. But yeah, I'm looking for more adults to play it with because that's probably why my stats are so good. Um, you know, just beating up on my seven-year-old is uh not the biggest badge of honor, but I'll take I thought you were gonna get away with dropping like, oh, I win this game all the time.

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Like I am just constantly winning at this game, and then you had to drop that you play with, you know, a seven-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 11:53

I have played against two adults, all right. Okay, and I've won those times as well.

SPEAKER_00 11:59

This uh that game kind of tickles the same part of my brain as like the Stone Spine Architects. I think it's just the building of the dungeon that's interesting to me. It like really makes me feel good as an engineer to like plan things out and have it come to fruition like that. Uh Stone Spine Architects, which also has a Kickstarter on uh or an expansion on Kickstarter right now. Oh, nice. Um, so yeah, I it's kind of tickling that part of my brain, and I I enjoy it, I think it's cool. Yeah, I would like to play it with you. That would be great.

SPEAKER_02 12:30

I do like um the the first time building the dungeon, I was like, it baffled me a little bit, like with the walls and the restrictions of you can't have this many of one hazard in the way of each thing. And every new person I play it with, they kind of get hung up in the same type of thing. Like you really have to reiterate that, like, okay, yes, from every you know, from the start to every single goal, you can't have two of the same thing. Well, that sometimes they think you can't have two hazards, period. Sometimes they think it's like, and eventually you get different monsters. So it just once you get over that, it all kind of flows pretty easy. But yeah, I I keep thinking, I'm like, oh well, what more could I do with building this dungeon? And then the next time I play, I'm like, oh, what if I you know started it here and build these things? And it yeah, it's it tickles me the same way it tickles you. And yeah, I think if we get together ever, Travis, if we're ever together again, I want to play this with you.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

If I ever see you again, my friend, yeah, yes, we should play this. That'd be great. Well, what else have you been playing?

Deep Regrets Fishing Push Your Luck

SPEAKER_00 13:36

The other game that I wanted to shout out is Deep Regrets, which just had its expansion delivered, uh, which is Deeper Regrets. Okay, and man, it is sure it is sure more of that game. Uh, have you ever played Deep Regrets? I have not. So it is a Lovecraftian fishing game that has push your luck type mechanics, where you have your boat and your rod and your reel and your equipment, and you have these dice that are shaped like little bobbers, which are super cute. They're like D4s. Oh, fun. Yeah, yeah, they're great. And they're kind of like chiseled down on one end and like painted with a stripe at the top, like they look like fishing bobbers, fishing lures. And um basically it's a push your luck where you are either fishing for the day or you are returning to town to sell your fish. And so if you're fishing, you pick one of three areas that you're trying to fish, going from you know, easiest to hardest to execute the fishing maneuvers and/or catching fish, and kind of uh fishing by the depths. So you have depth one, which is the shallows, depth two is like the mid, depth three is the lowest depth, and so you're rolling your dice, um, your D4s, your little fishing bobber dice, which are super cute, and you're trying to match or gain or uh get a certain number to catch the fish that is revealed when you say that you're going to fish in that area, and some of the fish are um better than others, they have different abilities, they have different costs, they have different you know stats, and um, the deeper you fish, the weirder the fish get, like Lovecraftian horror type stuff, like a million eyes and a bunch of tentacles, and they look gross, um, but they have special abilities, and so as you pull these fish up, you can either choose to mount them in your like trophy room, which is kind of cool, or you can eat them immediately, which is like discard them, but you get a certain benefit right away. And as you go about this game, you encounter regrets, and it's uh it's good to have some regrets, but not too many regrets. And these regrets are like uh cards that are kind of status impacting cards that do different things to your die, to your boat, to your equipment, to whatever. And the reason I say it's not good to have too many is because the person with the most amount of regret at the end of the game has to discard their highest value fish that they have mounted in their trophy room, which is like in-game scoring points, which is like up to 27 points at the end, like a significant number of points that you have to give up if you have the most amount of regret. So you're trying to balance the amount of regret that you get, which is earned through transactions in town or fish that you catch or fish that you eat. Basically, you're basically you're trying to press your luck to say, if I continue to fish, if I stay at sea, I'm going to continue to fish and use up all my dice. And I might not be able to catch any fish, I might take on too much regret, I might get these um, you know, these like strikes against you that are kind of like your madness. Um, so you don't want to go too insane, much like any Lovecraft and horror board game. Or the other side of that is you spend the day in town, whereas, which is where you sell your fish and you get money to upgrade your components. You get new rods, new reels, um, new equipment that can help you fish deeper, uh, have better success with your dice rolls. But if you're not out there fishing and your opponent is, they might be racking in more fish and uh end up with a higher payday at the end, which is endgame scoring. So yeah, it's it's kind of interesting. Um there's like a hundred and uh 147 fish in the first game, like the base game, and then they have the expansion, which is even deeper regrets, which adds like another 117 fish. Um you can play them just by themselves, you can mix them in with the base game, which is I don't know why you would not. Um, and there's new fish at each of the different levels, and there's a whole new region to fish, which is the inland shores or lock. You have like a lake that you're fishing inland, and that one uh the mechanics work a little bit different. Um, there are it just feels a little more swingy, like you're pushing your luck to catch these different fish, but the fish effects are like kind of blown out of out of proportion, like they just try to take it an extra step further from the base game, and it just feels a little more swingy than I would like. Um I I am trying to think of an example at the moment, and I it's eluding me, but it's I don't know. I I if you like the base game, even Deeper Regrets has more of the base game, and it is more of that. Um, you may like the new inland lock to fish, you might not. Um it also has like um I can't remember what they call it, but it's basically like your reputation points that you earn through fishing in this new expansion. I I don't know. I it's more of the base game. If you like the Mappace game, you played a lot, go for it. Uh, it also has cute pets that you can add to your boats. Nice. And the sad part is you can lose your pets at sea if you push your luck too far. That's not nice, which is really not nice and feels bad. No, um, but all that to say, um if you're into Lovecraftian horror type stuff, if you ever have ever played the game Dredge, which I have recommended, I think to you and certainly to Vic before. Yeah, Dredge is a like Lovecraftian fishing game. You go out there and you catch weirder and weirder fish as you lose your sanity at sea. Uh, this game is like the card version of that. It's got a little bit of push your luck. Um, it's got a little bit of uh engine building, maybe, because you can kind of stack your benefits from the different fish and equipment. Um I think I think it's good. I'm gonna keep playing it. The solo mode though. Um I say, I say I think I'm gonna keep playing it. I don't think two players is the right player count to play this at because eventually you end up passing cards back and forth, like these regrets if you run out of the deck. Um, does not happen very often in uh in two-player play, but the person that has the most regret discards a fish, and that feels bad in two players. Like it doesn't feel like a race so much as like a gotcha type thing to try and stack the regret on another person. Um didn't really care for that. Two players is not my recommended play count. I'd probably play it four, maybe three or four. Um

Expansion Tweaks And Solo Campaign Mode

SPEAKER_00 20:32

the solo mode, however, is completely different in that it's almost like a campaign game where you are basically playing Pokemon at sea and you're trying to catch all the fish, which is kind of cool. It it kind of flips it on its head where instead of uh exchanging your fish for money to upgrade your equipment, um, you might pull a regret that has a value of five. When you go back to back to shore or back to sea, or back to port, rather, excuse me. When you go back to port, you would have to discard fish up to a value of five to like make up for that regret. So you have to like kind of balance the regret you're taking on for bonuses with the fish that you want to keep to catalog in a Pokemon style collect them all type game that is meant to be played kind of as a campaign, so it kind of flips it all in its head, it's like very different. Um, I don't I wish I could shout out who who made the uh solo mode because it's it's really different, it's really kind of interesting that you're not playing against some automaton, it's a collect them all type game that's supposed to be played as a campaign. Yeah, it's really different. Um, so I I give him props for trying something different in the solo mode for sure.

SPEAKER_02 21:44

Man, I thought this sounds like a bigger game than I imagined. Maybe I'm thinking of the wallet. Is there a wallet version version of this?

SPEAKER_00 21:51

There is, yes. Uh, that is called Shallow Regrets. Okay, and I think that was published by Button Shy. Um, but yeah, it's a it's a wallet version of this game. Okay, do you have that? I do. Uh actually Amanda sent it to me. Yeah, she sent it to me when I was uh leaving Germany. She sent me a big binder of like solo games, and one of them was Shallow Regrets. So thank you, Amanda, for sending that to me. It's it's pretty cool. I this is like a a far more deep and fleshed out version of that game. Uh but shallow regrets is fun to piddle around with if you if you are into that kind of thing.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

Okay, sweet. Yeah, I mean, every I gotta I gotta be careful because I every time I hear people talk about games, I get excited and I want to buy it. But I really do think what you described, the theme, I like fishing. Yep, I like pushing your luck. Yep, it sounds like a game that I could definitely get behind. I don't know why. I mean, I've seen it plenty. Like this game was all over Instagram and things maybe a couple years ago. Uh somehow I passed it by, but now you're making me feel like I should probably hop on the bandwagon.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

This I I talked a lot about the mechanics and the gameplay and that type of stuff. The production on this game is really freaking cool. When you walk by it in the store, it does not look like the cover that you would see on BGA or BGG rather. It looks like um a box that's wrapped in old-timey newspaper, and it like is wrapped in like a fake newspaper full of like from a sea town that is full of Lovecraftian horror. It's so cool. And you unwrap it and you unwrap the newspaper and stuff, and uh the the little die that look like fishing lures, like it's a pretty cool production, and I think that they added some really neat little touches that were completely unnecessary, but the production it like made me really happy just to see those boxes when they came out was just like just made me so happy to see that.

SPEAKER_02 24:00

It's going on the wish list. Uh, you know, should we debrief in Jared's stead?

Theme Production And Shallow Regrets

SPEAKER_02 24:05

Because I know our boy Jared this week was playing some games, he sent us some pictures from way overseas, and he was playing a little bit of root with the homies, yeah. And then what was it, Skull King too? So yeah, I know hopefully he'll have some time in the near future to hop on and tell us how those gameplays went. But Jared's still out there, he's still part of the pod, and he's still playing games, still playing games.

SPEAKER_00 24:30

He it can't stop, won't stop. Um, but if he has time to play root, I think he has time to maybe make a guest appearance at some point.

SPEAKER_02 24:37

Yeah, so Jared, if you're listening, this is your call to action. I can't I can't debrief

Jared Check In And A Root Tease

SPEAKER_02 24:45

root for you, so come back and tell us how it went.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

Yeah, I think they had to cut their game short. I'm sure that they are you know called to duty. Call they they were answering the call of duty, absolutely, and uh had to cut their game short. But hopefully they can get more games played in the future. Keep sending us pictures, Jared. We miss you.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

So troops need the games, troops need the games need games, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:06

Uh why don't we hit move on to our special operation, our mission objective,

June Deployment Report And Stats

SPEAKER_00 25:12

if you will. Clayton, hit us with your ranking of the 38 different games that you played.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

You seen this deployment report here, Travis. So this is great. I love it. Yeah, this is June. I I went all out. I was excited you were gonna be back. So, you know, I put together this little slideshow. I'm touched anyway. 38 games, 69 plays, 22 players, 13 new to me games. So this was an exciting month. Again, I just busted through the slump I was in. I mean, really, real talk, like that slump, a lot was happening in that time period, a lot with work, a lot in personal life. You know, yeah. My wife had death in the family, like it was just a lot of things happening that made playing games feel like a real chore. Since then, and we'll get to it in over the fence. I've had some changes, some things have freed up. We went on a couple of vacations, and so June was popping, and I'm officially back and pumped about all the new games.

Dishonorable Discharges No More Plays

SPEAKER_02 26:12

So, with no further ado, we're gonna start with the sad games, the dishonorable discharges. These games I don't ever need to play again. I I probably will, though, some of them, unfortunately. But let's uh proceed. Dishonorable discharge. First is coming of age. So a few weeks ago, I talked to Tiff. I got caught up in the theme. How dare I actually believe there would be a tangible theme in a Euro game? I can't remember. I honestly, I'm sorry, Tiff. You did a great job, and I my tastes have just diverged so far from the standard Eurofair that this was unbearable for me. We and the rule book didn't help. I I had to call Mike. I was sitting there with my friend, so embarrassed. I had watched a plays video, I'd read the rule book a couple times, and I'm setting this thing up, and I'm like, I don't understand how this works at all. And I had to call Mike, Mike, thank you for getting on the horn and getting us squared away. But ultimately, like every time you make a decision, you have to evaluate like four different tracks and how they would move. It's like, okay, if I go here, I can move up on this track one, which gets me this, and then I go down on that track, which give me that, and I go up on this other track, which give me that. But if I go over here, I go down on this track, and up, and it's like if you really want to make a decision, you have to be like in an AP hell land that I have no interest in being in. So this one's moving on.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

This is the same artist as inside my head, correct?

SPEAKER_02 27:52

I don't know about that.

SPEAKER_00 27:53

I think it might I it's like definitely kind of the same style, like very like poppy and uh yeah, I could see caricature-ish, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

But yeah, if this is the type of thing that's for you, that's fine. But for me, for me, that's gonna be a no dog. All right, discharged, get out of here. Discharged, you have been relieved. Dutch blitz. Okay, this was this is like a little card game that's like a mix of solitaire and like a fast game you actually play against people. My wife loves it. She my stepmom taught it to us, and my wife got the app on her phone, and she wants to play this all the time, which is why I'm saying it's not actually getting discharged. I'll probably play it more. But if it were if I had my dreathers, I would not be playing Dutch Blitz. Uh it's it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 28:44

Played that one back in 2019 at SOS when we went to school. Oh, yeah. There was uh another couple there that was like all about Dutch Blitz. They wanted to play it every time we went out and uh played it a couple times, and I was like, Oh, this is kind of fun. I bought it, and I don't know if I've played it since that box has arrived maybe six years ago.

SPEAKER_02 29:03

So seriously, it's it's solitaire, but with other people, so discharged. It's kind of like solitaire. Before we get to honorable discharge, I do have one uh last minute edition. Late breaking before this podcast aired. Okay, I played Golden Goal with my kids. That's the new all-play game. And I would give that one the dishonorable discharge if I could. It was just no fun. And and to to boot, like the you know, it's cool that it's in that tiny box and you got all those pieces and the little mat, but to actually maneuver those little figures around on the mat that's like wanting to wrinkle up every time I turned around, like the pieces were falling down, and I was like, where was the ball? I don't know where the ball is. I would never play it again. I won't get rid of it because I collect those all-play small box games and it's tiny. So those get a pass, but it's been discharged from my mind.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

So more of a question of production than like actual mechanics.

SPEAKER_02 30:11

Yeah, I mean, the gameplay is like very from for what I can tell, lackluster. I mean, you literally, if you roll a high number, you get to kick the ball a lot of times, which gives you a good shot at scoring a goal. If you roll a low number, you have to like hopefully string together a bunch of passes to your players, but it just seemed like there was no balance there. But I certainly didn't play it enough to make any real judgments on that. But anyway, on to the honorable discharges.

Honorable Discharges Good Not For Us

SPEAKER_02 30:43

These ones, you know, I have no beef with these games. These games were fine. I just would never play them again and be perfectly content. Bombastic. Okay, this is a bite wing game, it's kind of like tic-tac-toe, but you're kind of playing a memory game with it. It's five minutes and it's better than tic-tac-toe, but I don't I don't need to play it again.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Did you get the cool carrying case, like the zipping course? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 31:13

I think that's the only way this one comes. That's the only way they could sell that.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

Production's nice, but like yeah, it's tic-tac-toe with more steps.

SPEAKER_02 31:20

Yes, really. Uh, yeah, honestly, tic-tac-toe might be better. Just kidding. Bite wing. That's not true. Next one is Corgi Pile Up. Okay. This is a game head game, and it's so pseudo-trick taking. I've played it several times now, and it's just like I don't get it. It like comes down to you get Delta hand of five cards, and then you play four tricks, and all that matters is the card that's in your hand at the in the last trick, and you don't want to be the first one to go over the top of this corgi pile, which is just how many points you have, and then whoever didn't go over the top and puts the highest wins, and it's just kind of weird. I I it's again, I don't have any beef again. I would play it, but it's it's never one I'm gonna go out of my way to play. But the corgis are pretty cute. Corgis are cute, and I like I like Paul and I like game head games. But this one is honorable discharge, friend of the show, Paul Solomon. Friend of the show, no beef discharged. You've served me well, Corgi Pilot. That's right. Next is Koo. Okay, this is an oldie, an oldie. Um, but I've been playing it with my kids a lot. They have gotten into this like bluffing type of game, they think it's pretty fun. Again, nothing against it. We I have fun playing with the kids, but it's not something I want to really pull off the shelf anymore. I I have games that I enjoy more in this space now.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

There are some people that seriously go to bat for coup, like yeah, they really love this game and pull it out at every social gathering.

SPEAKER_02 33:03

Yeah, I'm that used to be me. Like, this was probably one of the first five games I had, and I played it all the time. Okay. Um, so at this point, it served its purpose. You've been dismissed. All right. Goodbye. Foodie Forest. Man, I am hitting, I'm hitting one. I'm discharging some games here that I you know have feelings towards because this is a Kenizia trick-taking game, and played it with five players, four, four or five players, and the game says that you do a round per player, I think it's one of those. Either way, the moral of the story is this took way too long. Like this was like an hour game. Oh my god, didn't deserve to be longer than 20 minutes. The the core conceit is interesting. Like, you are all throwing cards into this pot, and then if you're the one that boils it over, kind of like a poison thing, you get to take the trick, and you're trying to collect certain cards within that trick. So it's a fun core mechanism, but the it's just way too long. I was like, good god, is this thing ever gonna end? So foodie forest, it has some good aspects to it, but it's another one that needs to hit the road. See ya, see you, foodie forest, and also again, I'm actually not getting rid of it. Small box games, small box games. I I just keep those because you never know, you know, and getting rid of them is it doesn't ever feel worth it. So it's it's still around. Next is Pirates of the High Teas. Talked about this with Mike last month. Again, he really digs this game. Um, he likened it to a streamlined critter kitchen, and I just think it's a bloated card game where you it didn't need to be as involved as is. It's fine. I enjoyed it, but uh Pirates of the High Teas for me, I'm not gonna be reaching for it. I've got other games that do contract fulfillment um that I prefer.

SPEAKER_00 35:12

You're being a bit contrarian here. Like people have been really high on this game lately, and I am it's kind of I find it interesting that you're poo-pooing it and giving it an honorable discharge.

SPEAKER_02 35:24

Honorable discharge is not poo-poo, all right. That is it. I played it. I honorable discharge means it served its time and it's now moved on. I was honorably discharged from the air force. I don't think I I don't think I was poo-poo. Okay, I just you know my time with that organization has ended. And just like Pirates of the High T's me have ended our relationship. Um there's there's other games out there that are in the reserves and active duty that can serve the mission.

SPEAKER_00 35:55

All right. Keep on keeping on.

SPEAKER_02 35:58

Yeah, I'd I'm yeah, I have been getting grouchier lately, Travis.

SPEAKER_00 36:01

Like my haven't been here, and Jared's been missing, been alone and unafraid, and we haven't been here to brighten your spirits every week.

SPEAKER_02 36:09

I know. I I think my tastes are I never thought I'd become that like cranky old gamer that's just like eh, you know, screw these new games. Um, but I a lot of these games I play and Pirates of the High Tees is one of them. It's just like it's just designed to be so hyper palatable that it's like it's just like they did all the things right by modern board game design.

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Like didn't take a big swing anywhere.

SPEAKER_02 36:38

Yeah, it's just like it did it all right, and it's a good theme and it's nice, but it's uh doesn't it doesn't move me, and you gotta move me at this point. I'm crafty.

SPEAKER_00 36:49

I want it on the record that out of the three of us, you, me, and Jared, you are most voted most likely to be the grouchy gamer that is shaking his fist at a cloud. So who said that? I am voting that right now. Oh, okay. Well, I'm gonna have to put a poll on the uh on the YouTube channel.

SPEAKER_02 37:05

Oh I well, I can't I can't uh complain there. Next honorable discharge is Market Fresh, and this falls everything I said about Pirates of the High T's. Same for Market Fresh. It is a modern game designed to be palatable for the masses, and it is acceptable. This is by Kramer and Keesling, which is why I bought it. I was like, all right, those guys know what they're doing, and they do, it's cool. It's got these, it's got great production, it's got these like cool little fruit cart dominoes that you stack up and you score points, and it's like a million games you've played before. It is mine, yes, honorably discharged. All right, now we're getting into the reserves.

Reserves Trick Takers And Party Picks

SPEAKER_02 37:51

You know, this is kind of a a scenario where these games are on standby. I want them around when the mood strikes, they're there and they're reliable, and I can send them out and they'll they'll do the job. So let's get into tier three fishing. This is the Friedman Freeze trick-taking game. I just played this not that long ago, but it was good. It's a little long. Um, I enjoy the the way it like kind of keeps ramping up in difficulty as the game goes on. So there's this ocean stack, and as you keep going through the game, more of these cards get added, and they you know are more powerful cards. They add trump. Um, the first round it's like bare bones trick taking, and then it just keeps getting more complex, but it's almost hyperbalanced to the point where it like doesn't really matter what you do, it feels like, because if you do bad in one round, you're just gonna get to draw a ton of these superpower cards, and then the next round you're gonna do really well, and the person who was doing well before did bad, and they and it just goes back and forth. It felt like there wasn't much to it, but I enjoyed it and I like the production, it's got like weird fish heart that yeah, for some reason I found enjoyable, but yeah, it's not a bad trick-taking game.

SPEAKER_00 39:12

A little long the that's the one criticism I've heard about this one is that it it plays forever, like the play is just too long.

SPEAKER_02 39:19

Yeah, it's like eight rounds, yeah, eight or nine rounds. Too much. It's it's long, and and when it feels like nothing you really do matters because if you do really well in one round, you're probably just gonna do poorly in the next round because somebody else drew a bunch of cards that'll just beat all yours. It's like, well, that's the way fishing goes. Next is the gang. This is the co-op poker game. This used to this was an active duty for me before, you know. I yeah, you were high on this one. I thought pretty highly of it, but I did play it with a couple folks that were not familiar with poker at all, and it was tough to get through. I mean, until we played like six or seven rounds of it, we were finally starting to, but I don't think we won a single one, like where we got the order right of our hands, and that was only four people, so we weren't doing very good. And it just illuminated that you know if people don't understand poker that well, this is kind of a tough one to because people are like, Well, my hand sucks, I don't have a royal flush, and so everybody just wants the worst chips, and it just takes a little bit to get those people there, and I, you know, again, with the right group, boom, I'm calling you up. You're you're heading out, you're getting deployed. Go get them, the gang. But uh, yeah, it's in the reserves right now. Edo. So it's a party game, and I really don't have any complaints about it, except that it's a party game. Yeah, I played it, everybody loved it. Um, you all get a number, and you have a category that says like popular athletes, and it goes zero to a hundred. If you get a 20, you have to say like Carson Palmer. I don't know. Um, and then everybody has to try and arrange their card in order without actually knowing the number, but just based on your clue. Yeah, it's kind of a mix of like wavelength and some other things. It's a fun, it's a fun party game, but I don't like party games that much. But everybody, everybody I play it with had a blast. They were like, this game's awesome. So yeah, um, again, when it's called upon, it'll it'll do the job. Mori, this is one you sent me. I did. This is like trick taking for trick takers. Oh, yeah. This is this is like the most complex trick taker I've played, and I'll leave it at that. I I like a lot of the stuff it's doing, super clever, but you really have to have a group that is knows their way around trick taking and also knows their way around modern board gaming because they have to be able to ingest a lot of rules. Yeah, it's gonna throw at you. It's a lot going on in this one. Yes, yes. The strategy is kind of hard to parse at the at the beginnings.

SPEAKER_00 42:12

You need your special operators to play Maury. You need those those pipe hitters to come in and really uh wreck this game.

SPEAKER_02 42:21

Yep. Next up we got pies, another all-play game that you I think you sent me as well. Um, this one's fun. I found it a little clunky. It's one of those trick takers where you play at a trick and then people get to take cards from the trick and build a tableau, and you're trying to fulfill recipes to make pies. Um, and so that's that. It just seemed like after every single trick you play, there's like this auctioning process where the person who played the highest card gets to pick first, and so it kind of dragged and like started and stopped because of that. But uh ultimately I thought it was a pretty cool game. Prey, another trick taker. This one is um all play, small, small box. I I like this one. Uh, the stick of this one is that you have cards that kind of like scout on one side, it has one value on the other side, it has another. One's your predator value, one's your prey value. You play the first six tricks with the predator side of the cards, the next six is the prey, and you're trying to win as many tricks as a random die roll you had. So I liked it. I think um it, I would definitely play this one again.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Takes a little bit of strategy with the die roll and everything.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

Yeah, yeah. I like the die roll kind of dictated what you're trying to win. Like you don't have to bid, you're like, okay, I rolled a two and a five. I have to either win two or five tricks, like which one? Um, so that was cool. Heckmec deluxe. I talked about this a few pods ago, but yeah. Too much heck mech. Yeah, deluxe is too much heck mech. I And Hecmec by itself is just a very random, a very random game that you know it can be fun. But it's I I like it. You know, it's great for people that like dominoes. Like a lot of people in my family like dominoes. So if you can trick them into thinking, like, hey, look, I've laid out these dominoes, they don't mean anything other than you have to try and roll dice to get to that number. But I've had a lot of success introducing this to people.

SPEAKER_00 44:27

It's a bit like Yahtzee, but with more steps. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 44:30

Yep. This is a shocker. Exploding kittens. I was appalled. We saw this at the thrift store. My kids had been wanting it. It was like four dollars. And I was like, okay, we can get it. And I played it with them, and I was like, no, this is better than I remember it being. I like thought of it as just like almost like cards against humanity. Yeah. Like that kind of bad. But it actually does have some clever card play you can do to try and make sure you're not the one that draws the exploding kitten out. Yeah. And you know, for a 10 to 15 minute experience, I don't hate it. And I'll I'll play it with the kids when they ask.

SPEAKER_00 45:10

This is not the one that has the cone of shame that somebody puts on, is it?

SPEAKER_02 45:14

No, no, I think that I think that they've they've gone way down the rabbit hole with this franchise.

SPEAKER_00 45:21

But the I think there is there is a version where like if you break a rule or something that you're you didn't know before, whatever, you have to wear the cone of shame. And one of my very first pictures ever of playing a board game is of Rachel wearing the cone of shame.

SPEAKER_02 45:37

Well, that's a winner. Well, good on good on Rachel, and good on exploding kittens. What a good sport. Yeah. Go splits mini is next. Okay. I like this. I think you sent me this one as well. It's in a tiny little tin, which was cute. I took it to the beach. I was like, I don't know, I've never played this, but um, seems like a good travel game. And I played it what it says three times. It's a fun little game where you have to think super quick about things. It's it's hard to wrap your head around it first. It's like, well, if the mouse is on there, but it's the wrong color, and the couch is on there, it's the wrong color, then you have to grab something that's on there that's not the color or the symbol. And it once you get into it, it makes sense, and it's it's like a really fast, fun game. But um, yeah, I'll definitely keep that one around for those types of like a race to grab something type games. Wear words, deluxe kids have like I said, the kids have been getting into these like bluffing and social deduction type games, and were words, they keep wanting to play. I've about had enough of it, but I think it's a good game to have around. I'm not I'm not I'm not in any hurry to get rid of it because I do think it's fun and more palatable for maybe your average audience than werewolf because you have this like 20 questions type thing that's like the backbone of it all.

SPEAKER_00 47:07

You got a lot of light party games in your reserves, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

You know, yeah, that's so what's the reserves are for, you know. You have the mood strikes, you want to have the the right ammunition. All right, we're moving on to active

Active Duty Games We Keep Playing

SPEAKER_02 47:21

duty. So these are ones that I'll always be looking to play. Baron Park. Nice. Baron Park is solid. I love those tetramanos. Yes, I had played this getting ready for my episode with Sam, and I just every time I play it, I'm like, man, Baron Park is such a clean entry game. I I just want more people that haven't played board games to come over and play Baron Park and be like, that was fun, right? Look, you got to build a bear park, and yeah, it was easy. Like and the art is super cute. Yeah, so Baron Park, it's staying active duty. Botswana by Mr. Kenitsia. Yeah, I went out of my way and got the old version right before 25th century, reprinted this, and now I kind of want the 25th century one because I really do think that one looks nice. But I have the ones with like plastic animals in it, like there's like the plastic animals you get at like a gift shop that are in this, and I this game is such a sleeper. I mean, it does there's like nothing to it, there's just a bunch of animals out there, and then you have cards with animals that go from like zero to five, and the whole thing is you play a card and take an animal. Doesn't have to be the card of it, doesn't have to be the animal you played, but when the round ends, when somebody has played the final card for one animal type, the only the top card for the animal is what it's worth. So if you've been collecting zebras and all of a sudden someone plays the zero zebra on top of the zebras stack, now all your zebras are worth zero. So it's this weird little timing game. I love it. Botswana. Excalibur.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

I like this one.

SPEAKER_02 49:08

Yes, I just played this, just got it yesterday, just played it yesterday. It was I had heard weird things about it. I I had remember hearing people say they didn't like it. And then I just saw it in the store and I thought the box looked awesome. And I was like, Well, I told you before the kids are getting into this kind of stuff, so I figured let's give it a try. I played it, I'm anxious to play it again. I think I think it's cool. I like the kids. Did yours come with like the metal swords? No, no, I got the $20 box at a little spot.

SPEAKER_00 49:39

Metal swords feel really good though.

SPEAKER_02 49:41

I'm sure they do. I, you know, if if if this gets 20 more plays, I might go out of my way to look for it. But as of now, it's it's just a fun time trying to be the one that ends up with Excalibur at the end. Gazebo, we've talked about this plenty. Um, and with Mike and geez, it's a Kenitsa game that every time Mary and I play it, I'm just like, man, this game is so good. Just trying to create these little little dominoes, create nooks, trying to race to get all your little gazebo pieces out. It's so fun and fast. And Mary and I played it in a gazebo on vacation. So this is staying in active duty. Next is Harvest. This one almost got promoted to special. I love this game.

SPEAKER_00 50:28

I have three games running on BGA right now. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

We played on BGA, I had no idea what was going on, yeah. And Mary was in some type of mood because we were in we were in the board game store and she picked this up and was like, this looks nice. I was like, all right, I'll buy it. Yep. And we played it like the next day. And this is my kind of Euro game, kind of in that viticulture vibe of where it's very procedural. Like, I liked that where I have to get the seeds, I have to plant the seeds, I have to tend the seeds, and at some point you cash in on all this work you've done. I just really like that rhythm, it's like satisfying to go through the motions. I didn't promote it to special ops just because I only played it once, and uh, I'm like, I don't know if it like gets old or whatever. We everybody I played with, like, nobody reaped or whatever the thing is where you harvest. Nobody harvested until like the last round, yeah. And I don't know if that's bad. That seems like bad strategy, but it depends how fast you can clear your land.

SPEAKER_00 51:34

If you can clear your land enough to cultivate or like uh propagate tend to your crops or whatever, like spread your yeah crops around, then that's good. You want to fill your board up as much as possible, but uh a quick reaping will also earn you quick money at the beginning of the game to spend on upgrades and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Yeah, yeah. So I yeah, I definitely want to play this one more. But yeah, harvest. I was very like this was right after I played coming of age, and I was like, I don't think I can do like EuroE games anymore, like these games suck. Um, and then I played harvest. I was like, Oh, that feels nice. Like I understood what I was doing.

SPEAKER_00 52:14

They also have the fall harvest or the fall festival expansion, yeah. And I I own it, I have not busted out the expansion yet because that the core game is just so good.

SPEAKER_02 52:25

Dang, yeah, I know it it does feel feels timeless. It almost felt like like Agricola, but easier. It does, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:31

Yeah, it's like baby's first agricola.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

Yeah. Hi, society, enough sad, Reiner Kenizia auction game. Don't spend all your money or society oust you. Uh, but yeah, this one always always hits for a 15-minute auction card game. Lim, again, this is my number two game of all time. You would think maybe it'd be in special forces, but this is kind of just based off my vibes after this play this past month. This past month. Yeah, and it was still a good play, but it it it didn't hit as hard as it usually does. Okay. The people we played it with liked it. My sister wasn't really engaged, which is probably why it's like we were everybody's like packing up to leave the beach, and and they just randomly decide to start packing up while we're in the middle of this game. And so my wife and my sister started feeling all this like pressure to get done with the game and start doing stuff. So that kind of soured it a little bit. Killed the vibes, but still active duty. Quacks, classic, active duty. Yep. Smartphone Inc. It's been a while since I played this, but I yeah, I played it with one of my friends who he loves Acquire and he like likes those like money-making business-y type games. Yeah, I was like, you know what, maybe I'll introduce him to Smartphone Inc. I don't think two players is the right player count for this, but regardless, I really love the the system there. I mean, you're going through you know very procedural rounds, and you like make a decision with your tablets at the beginning of the round that dictates pretty much all the actions that you're gonna take for the rest of the round. So you have like a two-minute decision-making window, and then the rest of it just happens. Um, I love that. That's that's so much fun. Next, Star Wars Battle of Hoth. Oh, yeah. This is a great two-player game. I am so glad I've experienced memoir 44 in this way because again, that game was a game I always wanted to play, but the theme just didn't really draw me in. And now I can see how it's just a great intro to those type of like tactical war games.

SPEAKER_00 54:45

And I hope they keep going with the Star Wars line.

SPEAKER_02 54:47

Yeah, yeah. No, it's awesome. Vivo, another all-play small tiny box trick taker. This one dictates what type of um suits are allowed in a trick. At the beginning of each trick, you flip over a card that'll say like a duet. And if that's the case, there has to be two different suits in the trick, or it'll say a quartet, and then that means like everybody has to play a different suited card. And I thought it was super clever and a lot of fun to play, and it also had a weird twist where you win if you're the second highest or the second lowest. Yeah, yeah, it's something like that.

SPEAKER_00 55:30

You can't be the first, but you want to be close as close or something.

SPEAKER_02 55:34

Yeah, I thought that was cool. Next is Waddle. This is a great all-play game. Again, these all-play games, they they go on vacation well. They put them in these boxes, the square ones, tiny boxes. So I loaded up the bag with all these all-play, all-play boxes. Waddle is a fun little, like, I don't know if it's area majority or whatever, but there's these fishing holes. You want to have the most penguins around it, and you score points for it. And then you also score points based on your biggest groups of penguins and how many are in it. So it's light, it's easy to teach and portable. Waddle's good.

SPEAKER_00 56:11

It's like rebirth, but with penguin.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

Yeah, sure. Just like that. Mino dice, so much fun. It's skull king with dice. It's so random, but it people love it. I mean, you're you can have the freaking equivalent of the skull king card roll the die out there, and it just waves a white flag, and you don't win with it. So it's random and it's a trick taker with just dice. And I I love it. Gets people going. Another random fun game is fruit fight. Um, a gentle line. This kind of has replaced flip seven for me. Like when I go for like the push your luck bigger group, like let's just play a fun, quick game. Yeah, I like fruit fight. I it's you're just flipping cards over, trying not to bust by drawing the same type of fruit. If you draw a fruit that somebody else has, you can take their fruit, and then you just have to sit there and wait and hope that nobody else draws that fruit until it gets back to you. Yeah, and then you can finally score that fruit. But fun. I I like this.

SPEAKER_00 57:16

It's a kind of uh mechanic that was borrowed by the new down up.

SPEAKER_02 57:21

Is it? I haven't I haven't played that.

SPEAKER_00 57:24

It's on BGA and it's super easy to learn.

SPEAKER_02 57:26

I want to play it.

SPEAKER_00 57:27

Let's run it.

SPEAKER_02 57:29

No thanks. Another one that I have in the CMYK magenta line box, but yeah, this game needs no endorsement from me. It's great, it's a classic for a reason. Magical Athlete. We might get into this at some point, but I hosted a magical athlete tournament at the beach uh with my 18-person family. Everybody was involved. It was a ton of fun.

SPEAKER_00 57:55

Um, yeah, did I talk about the the pickle bet on uh yes, you did? Yeah, we kind of did the same thing for a magical athlete tournament with some stakes.

SPEAKER_02 58:05

Yeah, no, the what a fun time. Yeah. Special forces, best of the best.

Special Forces Top Tier Standouts

SPEAKER_02 58:12

These are there's only four of these puppies. Big Top.

SPEAKER_00 58:16

Really?

SPEAKER_02 58:16

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 58:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 58:18

This is a Taiki Shinzawa auction game, and our boy Paul Solomon talked about this. And so I was like, all right, I'll freaking grab Big Top. It took me a little bit to wrap my head around the rules because it's kind of weird, but it's kind of like raw meats, like for sale, maybe. Yeah, um, yeah, it's really cool. So you have like these cards and they show they have like these numbers you have to cover up, and to cover up those numbers, you have to make a bid with that number so you can see everybody's cards in front of them, like what numbers they might be wanting to bid so they can complete their cards, and then you win more cards, and but then you have to try and complete them by bidding the numbers on those cards, and it is a cool little fun system. And I only played it once, but it's in special forces because I am champion at the bit to get it back to the table. Love that. Next is hot streak. Freaking love hot streak. I uh we played it at the beach, and again, everybody was just going nuts. The fish fell down, the fish went backwards. You know, you know, everybody who had bets on the fish was like, What the heck? There was themselves supposed to work out. Uh yeah, if you're just looking for a good betting game, just chaotic fun. Yeah, hot streak is my go-to. Take time. Really? Yes, yes, take time. I played this, it says two plays, but really each of those plays we tried like we went through like eight or so clocks. Okay. Each clock is its own little puzzle. It's got real the mind vibes with like maybe the crew type vibes, and you're just trying to not talk and place these cards and these segments of a clock according to restrictions.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:02

I just really enjoyed it. I think it's just the perfect mix of that type of co-op game that I like, where you you just want to keep trying again. You're like, oh man, we were so close, we just busted on this one thing. Um, so that's take time.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:17

Seems like that one kind of took root because I think that last time I was on the podcast, you talked about this one, or maybe like two or three episodes before I left. And you seemed like, oh, I'll give it a shot a couple more times. I'm yeah, I'm intrigued that it moved up to the special forces level.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:33

Yeah, no, I I it the last time I played it, I was like, hmm, that was that was interesting. Like I was definitely eager to play it again, and I got the chance at the beach to play with my cousin and her husband, and they both like really dug it, and we just kept trying to keep going through more clocks, and nice uh it was a great time. Made it. And finally, finally, the the special forces champion here is Lairs. Like I said, I spoiled this one already, but it's uh probably ill-advised. You don't normally spoil the you know main event, but two minutes into the podcast. But Lairs has been awesome. I everything I said before uh holds true. I can't wait to get into the deeper dungeons pack and start start playing with some of that stuff. But yeah, this one has just kept the more I play it, the more I like it, and that's always a good sign.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:28

This game, I think this game would get Jared really fired up. This will be fun to play with him, too.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:32

Yeah, for sure. Man, so I I went way too long on that. I you have a children, you have well, you have a child, and I just blabbed on about games forever. I was so excited to talk to you. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:47

Let's go real quick, let's go over the fence.

New Job Changes And Life Reset

SPEAKER_00 1:01:49

Tell me what you've been doing outside of board gaming.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:52

Big changes, Travis.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:53

Big changes, tons of changes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:55

So, like I alluded to moments ago, which weren't that many, it was more than moments because I talked forever. Um, a lot of changes. I am taking a new job, I start tomorrow. So I got a chance to get a role with the National Wrestling Coaches Association, which uh it's still is still sinking in. I mean, I I was a wrestler my whole life. I grew up, my dad was a coach, I watched him coach for 30 years. Um, I know what a good coach does for athletes of all ages, and so to be a part of the coaches association that's helping to provide resources and like groom better coaches for these kids is gonna be super rewarding. And I'm I'm so excited to get going with them. I'm so excited for you.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:50

That's incredible. I'm yeah, so happy for you and your family that you landed that job because what a what a perfect fit for the perfect guy.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:59

Oh, stop, Travis. But yes, I was in the middle of a ton of stuff at my you know, at Garrety Glass, and you know, I'm sad to say bye to them, but we had a lot of projects going on, and I was also going through like seven rounds of interviews for this job, and like all that was going on, like I said, and yeah, just gaming was I was just at a stress level that was not conducive to really enjoying the gaming hobby like I like to, yeah. But yeah, since since I've had a couple weeks to cool down since finding that out and going on a couple vacations, it's just been a nice, a nice reprieve, and I get started tomorrow and I'm ready to rock and roll. So that's what's happening with me. New job. So yeah, I'm excited. What's up with you, Travis?

Moving Pain And The Worst Movers

SPEAKER_02 1:03:49

I mean, I've been talking about your move forever, but how'd it go?

SPEAKER_00 1:03:51

Yeah, move went fine. As you can see, I lost my excellent background full of board games. Uh, board games have been relegated to the basement for now, and there's not a lot of space to put them upstairs. So uh we still haven't unpacked all the games. Uh, I'm a little ashamed at the amount of boxes that just said games on the side. There were so many boxes, and like not like the little like small court boxes, but like the tall wardrobe boxes that they taped up clo top, they taped up top, closed them in their tall format, and like stuffed them full of games. Like each of those game boxes weighs probably 300 pounds, they're insanely packed. So still have to sift through those. Um, the move was fine though. It's I want to say uh our move out of Alabama was by far the worst that we have ever had. We these guys were insane. I don't I don't want to like put them on blast on the internet or whatever, but like the movers that we were assigned were terrible. They they do the inspection, they walk around, they say, like, oh, it'll take us a couple days to pack up and one day to load or whatever. So they say it's gonna take us two days to pack, one day to load. The two days that they came to pack, they worked for like maybe two hours each day, and they're like, Okay, we'll be back on Monday to pack to load your stuff. And half the house was not packed up.

unknown 1:05:21

What?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:22

And we're like, there's no way they're gonna do it. They say, Don't worry, we're gonna bring six guys. Don't worry, don't worry, we're gonna bring six guys, a couple guys will pack while the other guys load. Okay, they show up, they bring three guys on Monday, and they start loading the stuff that is packed, and they're like, Oh, don't worry, the other guys are right behind us. And then, like an hour and a half, two hours later, the other crew shows up. They're they find out that they're like running out of before that we give that. I had them label all of our like high-value items, like my desktop computer and like some of this stuff, like our electronics. And then I caught them like rolling our stuff down the stairs because they were running short on time, and they're like, Oh man, uh we're quitting time's coming up, like, gotta get this stuff in the truck. And he legit like rolled my computer down the stairs, and I'm sitting there sweating, and like their uh supervisor was standing right there and like called them out on it, but like not before multiple items had rolled down the stairs. Uh that's horrible. They were running short on time for packing, so they just started like throwing stuff in the truck, unpacked, unwrapped. It was terrible. But most of the stuff made it knock on wood. We haven't like unwrapped all the boxes yet,

New Normal And Final Call To Action

SPEAKER_00 1:06:40

still in the process of that. But uh man, moving is stressful, and it's even more stressful when you have people that don't care about your stuff as much as you do. Yep. So sucks. We made it. I'm just happy to be back with you here on the podcast on the Operation Game Night Podcast. Yeah. All is well, our safety bubble of board games.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:01

That is right. When did you when did you start your job? Have you started?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:04

Oh, I'm I'm in it. You're in it? In it, yeah. Been in it for two weeks now. So is it is it going well? It's going great. Yeah. Uh still learning what I'm supposed to be doing and what people are important and what are not, and learning the ins and outs of Space Force. That's right. It's appears to be its own animal and changing every year. So um, yeah, it's been going great. No complaints.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:27

Good, good. I like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:29

Life is good.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:30

We're we're gonna we're about to hit a new normal now. New normal. We're gonna find a rhythm, we're back to the long form podcasts. We got new jobs. We're just we're gonna we're gonna rip another year of this thing, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:43

Everything is coming up OGN right now. I think so. I think so. And if you want to be part of this meteoric rise that OGN has going on, uh go ahead and like and subscribe. Uh follow us on Instagram, shoot us a note, leave us a review, and be part of this underdog tale that is Operation Game Night, because you cannot stop us, and we have not been stopped, and it's been almost two years. We're coming up on our two-year anniversary. Can you believe it?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:13

No lack of views will stop us from putting this out. You think you may be able to stop by not listening, but you can silence us? Yeah, we will keep talking about board games to our five friends that listen.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:28

That's right. Can't stop, won't stop. Did we do it, Clayton Gable?

SPEAKER_02 1:08:33

We did it, and I'm happy to have done it with you, Travis.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:36

I'm happy to be back, happy to be back in our old format for the Operation Game Night Podcast. I have been your host, Travis Smith. He has been my co-host, Clayton Gable. We have been Operation Game Night, and we are out.