Operation Game Night
Travis Smith, Jared Erickson, and Clayton 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
We Stress-Test Game Night Scenarios (ft. Tim from Board Game Hot Takes)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
A Golden Geek Award winner joins us, and we do what any responsible board game podcast would do: we immediately test whether he can actually host a great game night. Tim from Board Game Hot Takes stops by for a full debrief plus a rapid-fire hosting quiz built around real life situations that every board gamer runs into sooner or later.
We start at the table with Misfit Heroes and its card crafting style setup that creates hilarious hybrid characters while keeping the gameplay in quick, satisfying tableau-builder territory. Then we talk legacy in two very different ways: Mountain Goats Legacy as a family-friendly, low-friction campaign with small scenario twists, and Enchanted Ivy as a solo puzzle with tight placement decisions, guest requirements, and optional challenge goals for players who want more bite.
After that, we put Tim on the spot: office team building (Just One, Sushi Go, For Sale), a blind board game date (Lord of the Rings Duel for Middle Earth, White Castle Duel, and a smart pivot into Clank Catacombs or Grand Austria Hotel), post-dinner holiday chaos (Flip 7, Subjective, Hot Streak), and the core group heavyweight night (Manhattan Project Energy Empire, Dune Imperium Uprising, Isle of Skye, plus a euro curveball called Ants). We close “over the fence” with a real conversation about AI fears, sci-fi warnings, what we’re reading, and why everyone should check out Dark Matter on AppleTV.
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Welcome And Golden Geek Win
SPEAKER_03Welcome to the Operation Game Night Podcast. We're back, and better than ever, I'm your host, Travis Smith. Joining me, as always, is co-captain of the ship and special birthday boy, Clayton Gable. Happy birthday, Clay.
SPEAKER_00Well, thank you, Travis. I appreciate that. To celebrate, uh, we're we're doing a nice thing for a fellow podcast. We're giving some airwaves to an up-and-comer in the board game podcast scene. We have Tim here from Board Game Hot Hot Takes. How are you doing, Tim? I'm doing great. And is it is it literally your birthday today, Clay? No, it was yesterday, but okay. I'll take it.
SPEAKER_01Happy pleated birthday. Uh thank you. Thank you. You look great for I don't know how old you are, but you look great no matter what.
SPEAKER_03It's his 21st birthday.
SPEAKER_01Get out of here. No, I'm I'm 36.
SPEAKER_00I'm old. I mean, you look good, but I didn't think you looked that good.
SPEAKER_03So appreciate the honesty, Tim. Thanks. And Clay is, of course, joking because board game hot takes. Tim and his crew recently won a Golden Geek Award. Congratulations, Tim. How's it feeling? Thanks.
SPEAKER_01Oh, you know, it felt it was amazing. I have to admit. I for some reason, ever since we got nominated for the first time, because you know they nominate 10 shows every year, and then one of those gets selected as the winner. And I think this was our fourth year nominated. And after the first year, of course, it felt attainable. And so it was just like this like extra level of anxiety every year. What if we don't even make the cut this year? What if we fall off the list? Last year we were the number two spot. And I was like, if we don't even make the runners up this year, I just I think we got to quit the show. So I was glad to win it. I don't have to worry about that anymore going forward. I just get to cheer on the uh the other great podcasts out there.
SPEAKER_03Heck yeah. Well, congratulations again. You guys put out awesome content. We will give you a chance at the end of the show to shout out where people can find you so that you can, you know, grow your following even more and uh continue to thrive because you guys are putting out awesome stuff every week.
Misfit Heroes Card Crafting Twist
SPEAKER_03So we're going to debrief the games that we played this week. Then we are going to have a kind of hosting quiz for Tim. Uh, you know, he can host a podcast, but can he host a proper game night? We're gonna give him some scenarios and see what games he pulls out of the closet for each. Then, of course, we will go over the fence and talk about what we've been doing outside of board gaming. Tim, I'm gonna let you take it away with your debrief for the week. What's what sort of games have been hitting the table?
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna talk about a game I had never heard about, and a buddy brought it out uh this week uh on our game night. It was kind of our last last game of the night. We tend to when when I get together with my Thursday night crew, we usually play like two heavy, medium to heavyweight games, and then we'll bust out something that's a little bit on the lighter side. And he brought this new game, it just came out last year, I think, like yeah, 2025, and it's called Misfit Heroes, and actually 2026 is the data on BoardGameGeek. It's called Misfit Heroes, it's published by um by Alderak by AEG, and the designer was Phil Walker Harding, which you you may know is a you know fairly common designer, but I hadn't heard anything about this, and I guess it was a Kickstarted game, so maybe the audience, you know, I don't know if it's in retail yet or anything, but here's the gimmick on it. This is uh pretty much a straight tableau builder where you're gonna be picking up cards and you you have to pay a cost on them and just get these cards into a tableau. And I think it ends up being a four by four grid, so like you can have up to 16 cards in your tableau. But here's the gimmick on it is that each of these cards is sleeved and there's two pieces in it. There's like a card on the back, and then there's like a clear insert in front of that, and they can be rearranged. So what you end up with is all kinds of like you know, fantasy characters that you know that are that are like just crazy mixes, like there was an organized skeleton or like a uh uh like a um uh a scorpion uh barkeep. And so then you've got like this normal human with like a scorpion tail coming out of it, you know. So that type of weird mixes that that happen with it. Now the game actually works out pretty interestingly because aside from having the the pictures and the names that are combos of these weird mixes, the cost varies. So each of them also has an effect. So what you'll have is you'll have uh on the insert in front, it might be the um basically a condition you have to meet in order for the card to be played. And then underneath that is the effect you get when the card gets played. And so it's like, how do you balance this? Well, they balance it by putting a cost on both cards. So, like if one of the cards has a one and the other one underneath has a four, it's gonna show up as a one and a four, which means you pay five coins for it. And so if there's really strong effects, then they're gonna be more expensive on the card. And if there's harder conditions to meet, they might be less expensive. So they make they manage to balance out these cards. And basically what you're doing is um, you know, picking up cards, playing cards, getting effects that that are gonna score points off each other. You want to like organize your your grid, your tableau at the end so that certain cards are lined up with the right cards, you know, with certain types or or types of characters or whatever. And uh yeah, it was a pretty clever tableau builder. Um, you there's the three resources you pick up too. So a lot of the cards will give you, like, they're like stones, leaves, and water, I think. They're like elements. And um, a lot of the points you're gonna get is by turning those in for these kind of these race tokens. So, like the first that you can pay six stones for is gonna give you 12 points. The next one is 10 points, etc. So everybody's racing to collect these resources with the cards they're playing and then buy these these things. Yeah, it was pretty clever for a game I'd never heard of. So I thought it was a great one to call out and uh just give a little shout out to a well-known designer, well-known publisher, but it's fallen off my radar. So I was uh excited to learn about something new this week.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, Tim, I had the uh the I had the pleasure of playing Misfit Heroes once once upon a time. Um, it definitely the best part about the game for me was that initial pairing of the two different things. Like it does come up with these super funny, interesting combos that just make you giggle or laugh as you look at them. For me, Tableau building is not really my jam, but I can see where that would be a pretty nice fit for somebody who digs that. And God forbid, like I never play games enough to need the replayability of shuffling the inserts in the cards to like redo that. But I guess that's their whole thing is like, well, you can just cycle these through, and every game it's a different combination of cards you can play with. That never happened for me, but yeah.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there's enough in the deck where you probably don't even need to do that every game. But what they recommend in the rule book is like at the end of the game, have every player just swap four out from what you know from one card and into another card, and then on the next play at the start, have somebody everybody swap four out. So you kind of get this regular rotation, but you know, I don't think you'd need to do it every time. Honestly, we could play the same exact game, and you're just gonna get different cards that you draw, so your tableau is gonna build out differently. But um, I'm a huge fan of tableau builders, and this one was a nice, like it was a pretty light, medium weight one, so it was it was quick. I think we finished it in 30, 40 minutes or something like that. So even though it wasn't like super unique, um, I thought it was fun and and pretty slick for for what you got out of it.
SPEAKER_03So is it it's like card crafting, right? Like you slide them in, or that's like separate from the game. You that's part of the setup is sliding.
SPEAKER_01That's the setup, yeah. Yeah, it's just like you basically are gonna start every game with a different deck of cards based on how the inserts went together. But yeah, it's just like the card crafting stuff that AE AEG's done for other stuff, but it's not like like what is it? Mystic, um, what's the name of that that game? Mystic Veil. Mystic Veil, yeah. So like it's it's the same type of system there where you're just inserting these plastic inserts into sleeves. So it just creates unique combinations. But yeah, that's that's it. It wasn't uh it wasn't part of the gameplay itself, just just uh, I guess uh yeah, definitely made some fun, fun moments when you get the card out that's like you know, the barbarian, um the barbarian librarian or something like that, right? It's fun stuff like that. Yeah, that's kind of cool. Awesome.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for trying to pretty slick, pretty slick for sure. I I uh you can get catfish though, but I think if you if you're like thinking it's a John Declare game with the card crafting as part of the game, and then you find out it's just a setup, but yeah, a little bit of research will help uh alleviate that.
Mountain Goats Legacy With Family
SPEAKER_01So or listening to great podcasts that yeah. Absolutely. Here you go.
SPEAKER_00That's why we're here. Journal journalists.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. Clay, over to you. What did you play this week?
SPEAKER_00So I was actually out in Colorado with my good buddy Travis last week. That's me. And yeah, we're gonna do a whole episode on all the fun times we had together, but I will talk about a game that he sent me away with. He had a spare copy of Mountain Goats Legacy, and he sent me packing with it, and this was pretty cool because Mountain Goats is one of my wife's favorite games, so she's hard to get into new games, but she loves Mountain Goats, and bringing back Mountain Goats Legacy, this is a no-brainer. She was in, it didn't even take any convincing. I didn't have to offer the vacuum or nothing. She wanted to play, and and the kids played too. So this was a truly, I got a nine and an eight-year-old, and this was the first time the four of us all together sat down for like a legacy game like this. Um, so mind you, we're only two scenarios in, but I think this is one we're gonna keep pulling back out because it is basically mountain goats at its core. If you haven't played base mountain goats, essentially, you just roll four die. You can make any combination of those that you want to move up different um paths on this mountain. So if you roll three sixes and a five, you can move up the six path two times and then move up the five path. When you get to the top of the mountain, you get point scoring cards. So if I move up to the top of the six, I get a six-point scoring card. If I move up to the top of the ten, I get a ten. And then the game ends when all those point scoring cards are ran out on three of the mountaintops. But a super simple game. It's great for the kids. They're doing like some quick math with the dice, you know, trying to figure out okay, I rolled a four and a three, that makes a seven. I want to go up to seven. Um, but I won't get too much into regular mountain goats, but the legacy piece, without spoilers here, um, just kind of what I've seen in the first two scenarios, is essentially instead of the ones on the die, they have a little mountain goat symbol on one of the sides. And at the start of the scenario, you have cards that dictate what that mountain goat symbol does. So that's something that changes up each round. Sorry if you don't want spoilers. I'm gonna tell you what they are in the first, in the first scenario. Turn it off if you don't want to hear that. But um, so in the first scenario, you can use the mountain goat symbol to be a two or a three. So every time you roll that, you have a decision. Do I want to use it as a two or a three? Scenario two, we got a new card. We had to decide which one of those cards we wanted to use as the new ability for the mountain goat symbol. They also add these like mountain top cards, which gives a special thing to consider with um the different peaks. So, for example, again, I'm gonna talk about the first scenario, so please don't get offended. Um, it puts out a little uh mountain top on the nine mountain peak that says if you have the most nine point scoring cards at the end of the round, you get an extra eight points. So just little, little tweaks that just make the game different from game to game. It has like little tiny story beats at the beginning that you read before each game. And at the end of the game, the winner gets to pick kind of the path for the next um journey you go on. So uh this is like wheelhouse, clay gable legacy game. I love a game that is if I'm gonna do a legacy game, I want it to be quick to set up. I want the rules introduced in each new scenario to be very minor and just like a clever little new thing to consider. Um, feels a lot like when I played through My City or even um, what was that, the Hobbit there and back again. So yeah, like the the this is like my type of game. I will play through all 10 of these scenarios. I'm super pumped about it. Thank you, Travis.
SPEAKER_03You're very welcome. Was it in good shape?
SPEAKER_00Great shape.
SPEAKER_03Okay, that's great.
SPEAKER_01So I played Mountain Goats a little bit, and I didn't, I was kind of curious what would come in a legacy version of it. But what you explained is it sounds super fun, just like little shifts to the game rules without it. Sounds like not too much complexity, at least not yet, which I would expect from a game that size. Do you know? Do you end up having to destroy stuff during or could you like fully reset it and rerun the campaign again?
SPEAKER_00From what I've seen, it looks completely resettable. So cool. There is like a journal that logs your like campaign, but you can, you know, I think I think it's like a ripoff pad, so you can do it again. Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_01Um, I mean you might photocopy it or laminate it or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but like there's been no like sticking of things, there's been no tearing things up, it's just a bunch of like hidden components and tuck boxes that you kind of reveal at the start of each episode. And it's usually like one or two new things, and then you get get on your way. So uh yeah, again, just exactly what I want at this phase in my life, and I'm pumped to be doing it with my family. That's uh hopefully we'll make it through the whole thing as a unit. I'm I'm thinking we might have some peel off at one point, but I'm gonna make it through the whole 10.
SPEAKER_01That sounds awesome. It sounds super fun, and I love like I I love the idea of legacy games. I've really liked playing them, but I do just it's so disappointing like that you can't redo the campaign in most cases, or maybe you wouldn't want to, but a game of this weight where it's kind of just like, hey, all we're doing is we're playing 10 games of mountain goats with slightly different changes to the rules every time. That's that seems great.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Yep, that's that that is what I'm on track for. Stay tuned, Tim. I know you're an avid listener to Operation Game Night, but I will report back in after all 10.
SPEAKER_01I'll be sitting at the edge of my seat waiting.
SPEAKER_00Let you know if the final experience
Enchanted Ivy Solo Puzzle Legacy
SPEAKER_00was worth it. Perfect. Travis, what do you got going on?
SPEAKER_03Well, like two halves of a best friend lock it. I played the other half of this shipment that Mountain Ghost Legacy came in, and I played some enchanted ivy by all play. Uh, designer is Sarah Joshua, artist is Weny Zhang. Winnie? Wenyi. Um, this is a super light, solo-only pattern building game, akin to like Button Shy's ugly griffin inn. And what you are doing is you are inheriting the story behind it, is that you are inheriting some fantastical inn in the middle of the forest, and there's lots of strange visitors that want to come stay in your inn that all have special requirements. And on the outside of this inn, uh, there is ivy growing, enchanted ivy. And so you are trying to build patterns in front of you for each chapter. It is also kind of a legacy game. Um, you're trying to build patterns that fulfill the guest's request um to score the most amount of points, to complete the chapter, mark it complete, move on to the next one. The cool thing is it gives you a goal to shoot for points-wise. Um, you can either check it or not, move on to the next one. They don't care. It says play how you want to play. But they also have a like high score mode where you can try and up your score a little bit to beat some other benchmark that's slightly higher. And then beyond that, they have a challenge mode that is like fulfill some sort of gameplay feat to unlock stuff later on and like change the way that the game plays. And so I'm not gonna get into spoilers just like Mountain Ghost Legacy, but like let's take the prologue, for example. The prologue, you have a couple of different guests. Um, the challenge mode is, or let's say to complete it, you need 35 points. The challenge mode, the high score is like 45 points or something, but then the challenge that you need to complete is to have all the rooms in your grid have their IV connect. And so the gameplay mechanism goes like this: you start with two cards in front of you and two guests that need to be slotted into rooms. When you lay the the room, there's like uh balcony cards and uh wall cards, and they kind of look they're very they have the same pattern of IV on them, but one has a kind of windowsill balcony on it, the other one does not. They're two-sided, so the the patterns on both sides, but one side has a balcony on it. You are placing both of those in your grid, those cards, and one of the guests every single turn. Then you're drawing back up to two cards, drawing out of a bag to two guests, and you are creating this grid as prescribed by the rule book for each scenario, and each of the guests has a certain type of requirement that they want to type try and fulfill. So the prologue has like the mystery knight, and the art is super cute in this game. It's the mystery knight has this giant helmet on with like big horns. He's a scary big looking dude, but he's like sitting in the bathtub with like a little rubber ducky, and the mystery knight wants to be on a floor all by himself. So for the mystery knight, you score four points if there's nobody to his left or his right, all the way across the floor of your inn. Then you have, let's say, the monk. The monk wants to be near nobody. So any other character that is touching the monk in any of the cardinal directions or diagonals will lose you two points. Um, then you have an artist that wants to be right next to other people, and so you are trying to like manage these requirements in this really tight. I think the first scenario is like four by three, maybe four by four grid. And so the decisions that you have to make where you're placing a character and a door or a balcony every single time gets more and more difficult because you're trying to keep those IVs connected as you build out your inn. Um when you play the challenge mode, you can unlock additional doors as you go along by meeting certain feats of gameplay, and those doors can be only placed on the lowest level of your inn, and they do different things, they kind of change the gameplay a little bit. The red door is the one that you start with, that's like the one that you punch first thing out of the box, and that just gives you three bonus points during endgame scoring. But there are some other ones that do some weird stuff that change some gameplay. So um it if you're into games like Ugly Griffin Inn that are kind of like requirement fulfillment puzzles, this game is right up your alley because it has some really unique characters and puzzles. And I'm I'm surprised that they can change the layout of the in every single scenario and change the guess every single scenario, and still like balance the requirements with the points required to like keep it challenging, but also keep you progressing. I think it's a really tight design for a single-player puzzle type game like this. Um, I am definitely going to play through both scenario books because there's maybe five in the first ones, five or six in the first one, five or six in the second one. Then there's a whole bunch of like mystery doors and a final letter at the end if you complete everything. So I'm trying to uh work my way through it. I've done the first couple of scenarios and it goes some kind of weird places that I'm excited to see the rest.
SPEAKER_01Um, no, this sounds really cool, Travis. So uh this is a solo-only game. Do you do you play a lot of solo games?
SPEAKER_03I do. I probably play more solo games than most podcasters, most uh board gamers, honestly. Um and it's kind of out of necessity, kind of out of lifestyle changes. Like we move around for military a lot. So like I lose my game group all the time. And this allows me to continue to play. I my wife is not always into games. We have a young daughter in the house, so like if I can sit down for 20 minutes and play a round of this, uh this is like right up my alley.
SPEAKER_01Do you do you tend to play a lot of solo only games like this, or do you just find, you know, like any game you like, you'll find the solo mode on it and bust into a euro or whatever. And and uh what's your preference?
SPEAKER_03Well, I I have to kind of balance like time requirement for setup and learning and all that stuff. And so stuff like this is super easy to dive into. I've also been playing like uh the Star Trek Captain's chair, I've really been enjoying that. I am big into like Marvel Champions, and I have basically everything that they've ever printed for Marvel Champions. So yeah, um, I a little bit of lifestyle solo only games, a little bit of like quick all-play boxes that I can bust out. I have a whole bag of button shy games that I dive into every once in a while. So I don't know if I have a preference between like games like this or those big heavier games. I will play solo mode on like Arc Nova or games like that um that I understand well and can dive in. But sometimes a solo system is like just beat your score and high-five yourself at the end when you get two points higher than you have before. Like that type of stuff doesn't really float my boat so much as like meeting objectives and progressing through something. Um so this is yeah, this is a good way to capture that in like a very small package, and it's like 20 bucks or something crazy like that.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, so this sounds great. I I I used to play solo a lot more. It's kind of the same thing. Like when I made a move from California, Arizona, and I didn't, and this was like in the middle of COVID. So, you know, my wife, same thing, you know, she'll play with me once in a while, but it's not her hobby. So a lot of times I didn't I I needed to scratch that itch. So I was playing a lot of solo games a few years back, and I have a collection of solo only games that I just refuse to get rid of, even though I haven't touched them for a couple of years, because they're great. If I if I just had the time to sit down and and and play through them again, so I kind of envy that you've got that, even if it's out of necessity, you've got that opportunity to do that. I'm I'm like I'm I'm so close to like pushing for this early retirement or getting out of my day job so that I can actually do some of this fun stuff again. But yeah, solo gaming is is something that'll be top of my list when I have more time.
SPEAKER_03There's been some great ones that came out lately, like um, even if it's not a solo only game, games like Conservice uh came out maybe two or three years ago. Um, that's the one about like making tinned fish off the coast of Italy or something, or Spain maybe, and you're drawing fit, yeah, drawing fish out of a bag and like trying to decide what you throw back in the water and what you don't, or like coffee roasters, or like there's so many good solo-only games out there that don't get enough love because the you know you can you know pitch your game to more people if it's multiplayer and you try and maximize the amount of people that you can get around the table. So I think it's uh kind of a niche thing for solo gamers out there, but the the it's like a subset that is so passionate about like solo only design. Like there's this there's a great like solo board gaming Reddit out there that like people are comparing solo games to one another, and like yeah, well, what'd you like about this and that? And like the conversations are so completely different than you would get around the new big hot euro that's coming out. Like, how does this vary?
SPEAKER_01You know, I think it's so cool there's a big enough audience for publishers to lean in on that. Like, even you know, established publishers, like Garfield Games came out with Legacy of You a few years back, which is a solo only game. It's it's fantastic. And um, and uh was it um Fowers? Is that what it's called? Fowers Games, but they did that um uh it's the word game, uh paperback adventures. Oh, yeah, that's the one. I love that game. It's it's the rule book was terrible, but but like it's a solo only game, but it's such a cool, clever idea for a like a campaign type dungeon crawler, but it's only for a solo audience, and that thing was like a Kickstarter, you had to pay like $150 to get everything in there. So it's like who is the audience for this? Well, I guess it's me because I backed it, but uh yeah, that's cool. That's right on. Thanks.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, really enjoyed this one. I'm definitely going to play through both scenario books.
SPEAKER_00All right, I didn't have a lot to say about solo gaming, so I'm gonna chime in here real quick because you know, I love all play and those nineteen dollar boxes that this enchanted ivy comes in. I'm just in all of it. There's a lot of game in that enchanted ivy $19 box, and I love those.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think all play's been doing a really good job of making really you
Why Solo Games Keep Working
SPEAKER_01know, like great, great small box games that are a good game in there, nice production at a really good price point. So I definitely think they found a niche that the the market wasn't really you know leaning in on. So it's awesome.
SPEAKER_03And then they're doubling up with their like mega small box, like their little their mountain goats mini and uh the stonk markets and all those like fit-in-your-pocket type games. I really like those two.
SPEAKER_01Well, even like they just published container, which is uh obviously a reprint of an older game, but I was I saw it on the on the shelf at my local game store the other day, and I was blown away by how small this box is because I know that game is huge, and it's got like tons of minis in it and stuff like that, and it's still in this little like I don't know, like 10 by four four inch box or 10 by six inch box or something like that. I don't know.
SPEAKER_03It's and then it'll blow you away, it'll blow you away when you pull out the expansion, and the expansion fix fits in the small box as well. Nice, so it's crazy, like it's a feat of production for sure.
SPEAKER_00But no, I I do have this, I haven't opened it up. I am not a solo gamer by trade. Um, it usually makes me want to die, but uh I did think this was like in the right weight class that I might actually play it. And like I said, I have a real affinity for those boxes, so I picked it up anyway.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, the real question is it seems like a game that could be made into a multiplayer game pretty easily, like right? I mean, everybody's can just be competing for the same puzzles with almost no change to the rules, it would seem. So it's a little surprising that they didn't just make it a multiplayer game with the solo option, but whatever. They got enough games. I guess they got a hundred games. When I see them in a con, it's like a hundred different boxes on the shelves. I guess they got something for everybody.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, this could be easily adapted to two players where you are like maybe doing a draft, like you're you have to be in sync as to where you're putting that balcony next or where you're putting that ivy next to a line to the other Ivies, and um yeah, that'd be that'd be kind of cool, like a cooperative multiplayer enchanted ivy.
SPEAKER_01I think the oh, you just easily ruin the whole idea when you said cooperative. I I I I was thinking competitive, but that too, that too.
SPEAKER_03I this it doesn't come with enough cards for uh competitive because gotcha, you have maybe 20 cards in there and you have to discard a certain amount per uh scenario.
SPEAKER_01But that makes sense, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Maybe maybe though. That's next. If they can do a legacy sale, they can do a multiplayer Ivy. Yeah, all right. Are we ready to hit the mission objective
Office Team Building Game Picks
SPEAKER_03and have Tim host some excellent game nights for us?
SPEAKER_00I'll do my best. I'm so excited. So let's see what you're made of, Tim.
SPEAKER_03All right, Clay, take it away.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so Tim, I'm gonna be honest with you. This is this is personal for me. I just started a new job and I do have an office of about four to six people. I I fly my board game hobby loud and proud there. But I've been thinking, you know, we could probably use a team building event. And I would I'm I want to pitch it to the boss to have an afternoon where we just get the four to six people in the office together and I bring in a few games to kind of foster a team building environment. So, what would you recommend for that scenario?
SPEAKER_01Well, you're in luck because I've done exactly this thing that you're asking. Because uh, so I I work, uh I did work in an office pre-COVID. Now we're all remote, but but for a few years, I was working for this company and they just had almost they very little culture, like nobody cared about each other, nobody talked, nobody knew anything. I was like, we got to change this. So I started doing like semi-monthly, uh just you know, team building things. We I'd take them all out to play darts or you know, whatever. But I started doing this monthly game uh game night, and we just do it after work, but it was like paid, you guys stick around, you're gonna get paid for this. Come hang out with your with your coworkers. And so as we built it out and people really got more into games, we actually started to get heavier and heavier. But what I really recommend if you're starting this out, because you don't know, you know, what kind of what skill level, a lot of people get really scared when you start giving them big rule sets and things like that. So you want to bring something that's fun, that's really quick and easy to learn that anybody can get into. So I got three games for you that I recommend for your first game day. The first thing that I found has always been a hit with one of these, and it provides a little team building as well, is just one. So this is a it's a party game, but it's a bit cooperative as well. So you actually have everybody working together. It's a great icebreaker, you know. People that are a little maybe shy or like, I don't know if I'm gonna be into games. You start playing this and you're getting just the you know, the comedy of the goofy answers people are giving around the table, or when when people bust because they're given the same answer. So just one has been a really big hit. And I did this for a couple of our early game days, and everybody loved it. And plays, you know, four to six, no problem, even even more than that if you need to. Then I would follow it up with something that's just a little bit more of a game, like a little competitive, but still easy. Sushi Go is a great for me, has always been a good hit for a you know, very casual group, new gamers. It's it's very easy to teach. It comes together really after they played the first hand, they're kind of like, Oh, okay, I get what I'm going for now. And so, yeah, sushi go, I think a great fit for your your second game. And then you can get a little bit more cutthroat. You're now everybody's leaning into it for sale again. Another nice, easy game, a little bit of an auction, and um plays quick. So, two hours, you've got three of these games knocked out. If people want to go back and you know hit another one again, you've got the time to do it, but you're gonna get people a lot of exposure to the variety of things. Nobody's gonna be like in pain from having to sit too long, rules you know, teaches and explanations. And um, the these have been great hits for this type of these this type of event for me.
SPEAKER_00Tim, knocking it out of the park on the first scenario, all right. I didn't know you did the homework already by having done this before. Uh that's uh that's awesome.
SPEAKER_01You're you're in luck because I've I've had practice in all these scenarios you gave me. So see what you think of my other thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, well, this one's good. I I think that is definitely like a sweet little mixture of games to get people going. You got the co-op there. Sushi Go. I've I've been sleeping on Sushi Go. I love Sushi Go, and I've never play it anymore. I need to start pulling this out again. It's just classic and great.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's one of those games that I played it a lot when I was first getting into the hobby, and it started to get just kind of it felt a little redundant, even with like Sushi Go Party. And I just like kind of moved past it, but then every time it comes back to the table, like once a year or every couple years, I'll get it plate again. And I'm like, man, this game is great for how simple it is. And for new for new gamers, it's it's perfect.
SPEAKER_03I do have the new uh like uh Bentel box or something like a big version of it that has an expansion with it, and it fits all of Sushi Go inside of it.
SPEAKER_00Chef's special, I think is Chef Special.
SPEAKER_03There you go. Bentel box. What am I?
SPEAKER_00I wouldn't have a better name for it. Yeah, I what I noticed. I I think I would have been better off if I just got like the single deck of cards, Sushi Go, because I did get the Sushi Go party. Yep, and then it's just like kind of overwhelming when I want to go play it because I'm like, what do I want to put in this game? And you know, yeah, I agree.
SPEAKER_01I was the same. I I got introduced to it and I immediately went and ordered, and I was like, well, I'll get the bigger version of it. And it's cool, like it's cool that it gives you the variety if you're actually going back to it regularly. But it, you know, we're we're we're gamers, we don't really need to go and play the same like basic casual game frequently, but it's great as a filler, and you don't need more than that, just that base sushi go box. Like that that's good enough. It's the perfect mix of cards for you know any experience.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I've often thought about just grabbing the the the small box one and just getting rid of my uh sushi go party because it that really is overkill for where I where I use this in my life. And then for sale has been one of our favorite small box games forever. So you really can't go wrong there. I love that.
SPEAKER_01I actually just got introduced to that one just a couple years ago. I was way late on it. I I heard about it, and I was at a uh local seller's market where you know people buy and sell used games, and somebody was selling it for five bucks. I was like, five bucks, I can't, I
Party Chaos With Space Team
SPEAKER_01gotta try it. And it's just been a hit. I always bring it out casual game nights or like if we've got a larger group, it's great for an end-of-the-night, you know, filler game. Fantastic.
SPEAKER_03Have you ever played Space Team?
SPEAKER_01I've never even heard of Space Team, I don't think.
SPEAKER_03Okay, I don't think it's an actual like board game, I think it's like a leadership game, but it is so much damn fun. Like it is uh it's a game that I would bring to something like this, where you are trying to swap cards around a table to complete like kind of objectives that are in front of each player, and then in the middle of those malfunctions where you're trying to escape on a rocket ship or whatever, you're trying to find the pieces of the rocket ship to escape before a timer runs out. Um in the middle of your malfunction deck, there are hazards or weird things that happen, like swap cards with another player, get your feet off the floor, uh, you know, swap a seat with somebody else. And the whole shtick is that like I can somebody held a piece that I need across the table from me, but they can't pass it to me directly. They have to pass it around the table, and some of your malfunctions have the name of the item that you need, and some have a picture of it. So you're screaming at like everyone's screaming at the same time, trying to find the pieces that they need. And I played so much of this. I I honestly think it's supposed to be like a team building game, but it is so much fun. Like next time you want a party game, Space Team is where it's at.
SPEAKER_01Right right on. I'll I'll definitely check that out and see if I so do you just like find rules for it online or something, or is it in a box? It's something you're doing. So it isn't a box, it isn't a box.
SPEAKER_03There's like uh an expansion for that's like the not safe for work expansion. You don't need that, it's just like silly items and stuff like that. But the core box is so much fun. It's people like you play it once, and people are like, Oh, I get it now, and then you run it back, and people are screaming at each other and yelling and throwing cards, and oh, it's so much fun. Uh that's what I would bring to uh the uh company team building retreat.
SPEAKER_00Tim, real quick before we move on to the next scenario. Uh, last year we did a small box bracket, and the finals were for sale and sea salt and paper. Have you played sea salt and paper? Which one would you which one would you crown the champion there?
SPEAKER_01Sea salt and paper, no brain. Okay. It's it's one of my favorite games. It's in my top 20. So although, although I love for sale, sea salt and paper is my go-to. I love a two-player, it's my I probably my most played game in the last year because my wife really likes it too. But uh yeah, fantastic filler game for me.
SPEAKER_00Okay, yeah, I just want to see where you landed on that because where'd your bracket land? We landed at sea salt and paper. Sea salt and paper took it, it's a whole small box bracket.
SPEAKER_01You guys are smarter than you look, anyway.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you tell Adam that. You can tell Adam that next time. Um but yeah, my wife swayed it. We could not decide. Travis and I were on. I called her up, and she likes both those games, but she pushed sea salt and paper to the to the champion spot. So anyway, Travis, you want to give Tim the next scenario?
Blind Board Game Date Lineup
SPEAKER_03Okay. Your next scenario is that you have been set up on a blind board gaming date. Uh, somebody runs into you and they're like, Hey, you like board games. I have this cousin that also likes board games, he's new to the area. Do you mind playing some games with him? So this person is gonna come over to your house and play some board games, and you have no idea what their experience is or their comfort level with more intense games, but they're on their way over. What games are you pulling out right now?
SPEAKER_01Well, this is definitely the trickiest scenario you presented to me, and for a couple of reasons. One, because this sounds awful. Like I don't want to go hang out with some random person I've never met before. I don't know if I'm gonna have a good day on that game day, but I'll give it a shot. I'm doing it for my friend. I get it, gotta make make their cousin feel welcome. The second thing is I definitely would have gotten their phone number and texted with them a little bit and just like picked their brain, hey, what kind of games do you like? That would have been helpful. But since I didn't have that information, I'm gonna take a stab out here. We'll see how it works for you guys. So, number one, you know, it has to be a game that's good at two players, and I I wouldn't want to go very heavy at all because you don't know for sure. So I think a game that I've found works really well with fairly casual gamers, but also, you know, hobbyists really like it is Lord of the Rings duel for Middle Earth. This is the two-player only Lord of the Rings version of Seven Wonders duel, and it's fairly easy to get into. So even somebody that hasn't played a lot of games, it's not too challenging. And it's a good way to kind of like get a sense for what they're into. Does it work for them? Are they having fun with it? Are they getting it? If so, I think we're on the right, I think I think the stage is set and I'm headed in the right direction. The next one I'm gonna be picking, and this is kind of unusual for me because I picked a second two-player only game. This is the White Castle duel. And this is a recent two-player favorite of mine. Now, I I wasn't even a very big fan of the White Castle. I think it's an okay Euro. There's a lot of game in a small box, which I appreciate, but it wasn't something that really stood out to me. But I got a chance to play this two-player version of it. And although it uses a lot of the same iconography, it's mostly a different game, and it's really, really cool. A really great uh competitive head-to-head Euro with a lot of interaction with the other players, a lot of variability in it. So I've really liked this. Now, this is a little bit heavier than like Lord of the Rings duel is, but then I can I can really tell. Am I first, are they enjoying this? Am I are we headed in the right direction? Are they gonna like a little bit more weight in the future? Um, do they like the fantasy theme or do they like the drier theme of the White Castle duel? Are they okay with that? You know, so just getting a sense with those two games, which are both like 30, 45-minute games, they're not gonna be too painful, even if they're not enjoying it. I don't think I'm gonna scare them away. But depending on which of those they really liked the most, then that's where my third game comes in. So if they're if they preferred Lord of the Rings duel for Middle Earth, or if I got to talking to them and they're like, Yeah, I really like Dungeon Crawlers, or you know, I like I like combat games or whatever, we're gonna do clank catacombs because fantasy theme, a little bit, you know, kind of pretty light, uh a little goofy. I think that's a fun game for almost anybody to play. But if they're really into the White Castle duel instead and they're telling me, oh no, I like Euros, you know, they're they're they're talking about their game collection and they they like a little bit heavier stuff. I'm gonna have on my second table Grand Austria Hotel set up as my alternate. So if if I've gotten a sense that they're really true gamers, they like Euros, that's that's a great two-player experience. Doesn't play too long, right? I don't want this this rando in my house for too long for this one day. But uh yeah, those are my those are my possible options for the third game.
SPEAKER_03Nice choices. Yeah, it would have been so easy to pick like sea salt and paper and like the smaller box games that get them in, play this game real quick, and get them out of the house. But I appreciate that you like added the depth, kind of feel them out, and you have kind of a branching path depending on what how they are receiving those first couple games.
SPEAKER_01Well, I have to assume that if they're if we've got linked up specifically because they are known to like board games, they're probably at least you know, somewhat experienced. Like and if not, these are you know, these these games are not that hard to get into, even for somebody that's never played anything but Monopoly and and Risk, they're gonna get into these games fairly easy. White Castle duel is probably one I'd be ready to pivot off of quickly. If like if Lord of the Rings duel for Middle Earth was feeling a little bit overwhelming to them, then I'd go something lighter, like sea salt and paper. But um, you know, worth with worth testing the waters. If you're maybe it'll turn into a a great friendship and you want to make sure that they got the the chops for it early.
SPEAKER_03I mean, that's basically how Clay and I started gaming together was like, oh hey, you played a board game this weekend. I've played a board game this weekend, and then we here we are like five years later.
SPEAKER_00So I didn't think he was the real deal. I was like, he was like, Yeah, I I I like board games too. I was like, sure, okay, I guess you can come over. Oh man, would you have a a break glass game like in case of emergency if you're teaching Lord of the Rings duel for Middle Earth and you're like getting the sense that this guy was a a massive Uno player?
SPEAKER_01Um God, two players is a little hard because I definitely have some games that would fit well there. But um, yeah, I don't know. I I'd have to, I'm sorry, I didn't prep for that.
SPEAKER_00Well, no, I hey, I threw you, I threw I threw a curve ball. You just answered it so well. I wanted to, but I did hear something that was alarming. I I feel like you said if he was a true gamer, he would like the Grand Austria Hotel.
SPEAKER_01I th I think I said if he was if they were uh like a into Euro gaming, if they're a hobbyist. I don't I don't know that I use the word true gamer. If I did, I apologize. I didn't mean to minimize the uh the the Meritrash gamers out there. Yeah no believe me that the I like all kinds of games and and Euros are not the only thing. And in fact, I'd say that in some times, you know, I I get why people don't like them, but there's plenty of other great gaming experiences. Um, it's just that there are gonna be some people that that's what they really think of when they think of a game day. So I don't want to disappoint either. You know, you got to have that, yeah, have that ready and show them that you're not just the Monopoly player if if they're ready for it.
SPEAKER_03Heck yeah. When I first read this scenario, I was kind of cackling to myself, and I was gonna read it like their cousin Jorge is coming over, and then like, oh, twist, they don't speak English. Like, what games are you pulling out where they don't have to communicate? But yeah, good choice.
SPEAKER_01That's a different that's a different challenge altogether.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. Okay, the next one is what game. Oh, Clay, you're up. I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_00Well, you were doing so beautifully.
SPEAKER_03Um the next my phone died because you were talking, you're taking too long. So go ahead.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god, I'm sorry. Okay, so you know, you're everybody's been here, you know.
Post Dinner Party Game Menu
SPEAKER_00I get so sick of uh I'm not good at gatherings, I don't like just sitting around, even with family, you know, the holidays are over, everybody's together, everybody's just sitting around after dinner. You want to liven things up, get people out of their food coma. What type of games are you packing for that scenario?
SPEAKER_01I got the perfect, I got the perfect uh three-course meal for you right here. Post post-Thanksgiving meal, three-course meal. Okay, we're gonna start out with flip seven. It's easy, gets people into some action, into some excitement, some cheering moments. You're definitely gonna be out of the coma after a couple games of flip seven, a couple hands of it. Next, people are now ready to think a little bit more. So we're gonna go to uh one of my favorite new party games. This is called Subjective. Have you guys played Subjective?
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_01Uh it's it's fantastic. Uh, if you see it, pick it up. So it is a um you basically lay out these 16 category cards on the table, and they're like they're little whiteboard cards, and one person is gonna be the guesser. So somebody takes a clue card that has A category on it and they pick one of the clues on it, and then they pick that particular category. So let's say the category is food and drink, and the and the um and the clue is Big Mac. So they'll pick up the category card that says food and drink, they'll write Big Mac on it, and they'll put it so that everybody else at the table except for the guesser can see it. And then the guesser is going to count down three, two, one. And when they say one, everybody slaps on the table and grabs a category that they want to give a clue on. So for example, if food if the food and category was Big Mac, and that's what we're trying to get this person to guess, I might grab brands and companies. And of course, I'm going to write McDonald's on the back of mine. And then somebody else might write, might pull uh fictional character and they're going to write Ronald McDonald on the back of theirs, right? So they're going to pick some clues. And what happens is once the person has seen that all the categories have been chosen and they they don't know what's written on them, they're going to tell one person to flip their clue over. So let's say that they told the person that said fictional characters to flip it over, they reveal Ronald McDonald. So now they know they've got to find a food or drink that would match with Ronald McDonald's. So maybe they say chicken McNuggets. Okay, they didn't get that right. No points. Then they're going to pick another care, another person, and say, show me yours. And I reveal McDonald's. They're like, okay, well, I kind of knew that it was related to McDonald's, but I'm going to say Big Mac now. Okay, great. They win a point. The person who gave the clue gets a point. And then anybody else who has clues around the table, now that person has to look at their category and try to guess the clue that's underneath the other side. So it's this mix of both setting a clue that will help them get to their clue in case they pick yours first, but also making it a clue that if they know what the actual answer is, then look at your category and can name the clue. It works really well. Um, it's yeah, it's it's great. I I would I would definitely recommend it. I actually introduced this to my family last weekend. My nieces were in town. We had eight of us. It only it's supposed to play to six, and there's some good reasons for that, but we played it with eight, and everybody had a blast with it. The only problem with eight is that use usable categories tend to run out. So there's a couple people kind of like sitting at the edge going, I have no idea what to pick right now. But uh, but it but yeah, like six players, four or six players, fantastic party game. And anyway, great, great Thanksgiving day, middle of the road. That's that sounds awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yes, we always need more party games because I get burnt out on party games really quick, so I'm always looking for a new one. Like, even if they're great, like I I love just one and played it a ton, but after you play it so much, like people just want to keep coming back to it because they love it. But you know, as the gamer in me, like I'm just like, okay, well, let's try something new. Uh, how's so clover sound?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and I I you know, I'm here for you guys tonight. I'm here for your show, but just as a little aside, we just did a top five party games episode a few weeks back, and uh, there's some great choices in there. So if you're if you're looking for some new party games, I did mention subjective, I think it was my number one on the list, but it was high up there in any case. But some some really great stuff. We actually even played the games on the air together, so I thought that'd be a fun episode.
SPEAKER_00I did listen to that episode. That was that that was pretty fun playing along with you guys.
SPEAKER_01All right, here's my number three for for post-Thanksgiving dinner. Now, everybody's had several glasses of wine at this point, everyone's feeling a little bit silly, a little excited. We're gonna play hot streak. This is the racing game where you're betting on big colorful uh sports mascots running a race, falling over, tripping over each other, crawling backwards, falling off the mat. Um, this game's fantastic, but it's best with an audience that's already a little bit uh having a little a little silly, maybe a little intoxicated, works great, but I think I think good for a family gathering on Thanksgiving night.
SPEAKER_03We love that pick because we just did a uh betting on betting games.
SPEAKER_01And oh yeah, I did I saw the topic, I didn't get to listen to that episode yet.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, so Clay devised a like horse race of betting games that we then bet on what the other person would choose. So uh if you're seeing this for the first time and you have not listened to that episode, go back and see what Clay put together because it's it's really smart, it's it's pretty fun.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was more it. I thought I think it was more fun in my head than I think it turned out being, but check it out either way. So you know, sometimes I get these wild ideas, but anyway, Tim. So that's two great games. Did you have a third one for the yeah?
SPEAKER_01I gave three flip seven, subjective, and that's no, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Shoot, man. Uh flip seven just fell right off my radar once you got into subjective talk. No, I can't uh can't argue with your Thanksgiving pick me up there. I think uh I've personally used Flip 7 and Hot Streak in similar scenarios, but subjective is gonna be on the radar now.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, definitely gonna look out, look out for that one. Okay. Last scenario. What games are you pulling out for like your core
Core Group Night Heavy Hitters
SPEAKER_03gaming group? Maybe the guys from the podcast are coming over, or maybe your local group is getting together. What are you pulling out tonight if they're coming over?
SPEAKER_01This was the easiest list for me to make because I get to do this twice a year with my podcast friends. We get together in person for a weekend, five days. And obviously, we play a lot more than three games, but there's usually a few perfect ones. And uh, so I'm gonna name three that have hit really well for us that we're all gonna be excited to play. First, we're gonna start it out a little bit of a midweight game, something to just get us started off, get us, get our brains moving a little bit. Manhattan Project Energy Empire. Uh, this is an older worker placement game, but there was a recent reimplementation. I think it used to be called the Manhattan Project Energy Empire. But we've I played the old one and the new one. They're both great. New one's a great little production, uh, tons of great content in that box. And it's just a super fun kind of a uh kind of an auction worker placement game where you're you're taking worker placement spots and you can pay energy uh to essentially block other people out. Like the more energy there, the more they have to put in in order to also go to that spot. So you can kind of be really you know interactive with the other players. Um, it's it's just a really clever take on worker placement with a lot of cool theme about building up energy and all the pollution that comes with it and trying to keep your you know, keep the pollution down and stuff like that, building out asymmetric tableau of of uh you know worker placement spots you can activate. So it's uh it's pretty slick, very midweight. But if you like worker placement, highly highly recommend it. Have you have either of you guys played this game?
SPEAKER_03I have not. No, okay. But the the worker placement game that you did inspire me to try was barrage, and I'm really enjoying that right now.
SPEAKER_01Oh, cool.
SPEAKER_03You guys talked about that a lot on uh your top 50 podcast, and yeah, I gave it a shot and I'm really enjoying that.
SPEAKER_01Man, that is uh that is a that's a mean and and challenging game, but I love it.
SPEAKER_03I love it, and even like the digital implementation is pretty good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if you play in board game arena, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, next game. Yeah, yeah. Manhattan Project Downer Jampire, by the way, is a lot lighter than that. So great. Oh, nice group. You know, it's it's good for a lot of groups, like almost casual weight. Like, I this is a game I I even introduced to my wife, and she really enjoyed it, which is she hates learning new games, but it was pretty easy to get into and stuff. So, all right, but our our group loves this. Okay, here's the here's the hit of the night. Here's the hit of every game day that we do. Dune Imperium Uprising is going to be our three-player ultimate, like epic battle game. We love this game. It was my number one on my top 50 list this year. I think it was on both Chris and Adams' top 10. So big hit for all of us. Whenever we get together in person, this is a must-play game that we do, and it's always an epic battle. We're all very competitive at it. We all know how to play, we can all pull a strategy off. I love this game.
SPEAKER_00My God, yes. I this game has been in my top five ever since I played it for the first time. I've just never had a gaming experience like I like I have when we played Dune Imperium. It's just so good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, it's so much tension too for what is basically a worker placement game as well. But there's something about it that it's just like every moment, every decision, I'm like, I know I just screwed that up. I know I made a mistake there. I know that I'm gonna lose this combat, even though it looks like I'm gonna win it. Like, it just it's so tense and exciting, and there's so many great, huge moments that happen in it. And I don't know how Paul Denon pulled it off. But yeah, this is gonna be our epic, epic uh game for the night.
SPEAKER_03Whenever we talk about this game, I always talk about you know a game is well balanced and and such a smart design when somebody takes their very first turn, their like their very first worker placement, and you go, Oh my god, I'm behind. Oh my god, well, how do I overcome this now? And like you feel like you're like recalculating every single time. And I yeah, this was a a brain burner for me, at least. Um, and this might be one of the first games that Klay and I ever played together.
SPEAKER_02That's one of the very first ones.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, special place in OG and lore for uh Dune Imperium.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, you know what I think makes it so special is that it's you play to 10 points, that's it. And every point is so hard fought, and so it and in a lot of it, it's like you're competing with other players for the points, both in the combat. So when points are available in combat, then everybody's got to get in there and try to nab one. So, of course, it's it's a huge conflict, but then even those tracks where you're trying to race for the alliances up the tracks, and uh, you you grab one of those alliance tokens, and then you know that somebody's right behind you, and you've got to be watching your back the whole rest of the game unless you get to the top of the track, and it's just so much so much excitement for 10 simple points to win the game. It's fantastic.
SPEAKER_00You're actually getting my heart racing right now. I mean, that when you see that like two-point card get like declared for the winner of the combat at the start of the round, you're just like, Oh my god, it's all hands on deck.
SPEAKER_03I haven't done enough. I haven't done enough. Yeah, awesome.
SPEAKER_01All right, my number three finishing out a little bit lighter, but always a fun game at the end of the night. Isle of Sky from Chieftain to King. This is I think it's I would say it's my favorite Alexander Fister game, but it's Pirates of Maracaibo is really close. But this is always a hit at three players or more. I don't think it's great at two players, but at three players, we still have a great time with it. It's a fun little tile placement but uh game. But you you basically like you build a market of the tiles every round, you kind of set the prices for them. And if nobody wants them enough to pay for them, then you pay for them. You have to give up that money that you set the price on. But it's in the in the interest of meeting these conditional end round goals every round. And the cool thing is that these goals are are variable, but they get reused three times throughout the game. So every one of those goals you care about at the beginning of the game, but you're gonna care about it even later in the game. So the tiles you're auctioning for are gonna change value based on what the immediate goals are, what goals are coming up, whether that particular scoring thing even matters in this game. And always I just I think it's fantastic. And I just it's so satisfying, these little tile placement games where you're connecting the mountains and connecting the roads and connecting the river. I just love it. So this is always uh a fun way to end an end an evening.
SPEAKER_03I've always been I've always been interested in this game, but I've never actually tried it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's it's so good, and it's uh I've only played it once. It was like seven years ago. And every time I hear people talk about it, I'm like, I gotta get that game again because it's got so many things I like. The tile placement, kind of the auctioning and like market setting of the tiles is is so interesting and interactive for what could have otherwise been kind of like a heads-down solo puzzle. So yeah, man, I gotta get this played again. Uh Tim, I got a curveball for you. I know you uh I'm ready this time.
SPEAKER_01I feel ready.
SPEAKER_00Okay, okay. We there is something magical about you know playing games that everybody already knows. You know, I I don't know about you, but I'm always teaching people new games, and it's kind of exhausting. Like, you know, it burns you out after a while. So getting people together and you guys all know the games already, that's kind of a magical experience to have with your friends. Like you nobody has to read the rules, it's just we're in it. I honestly can hardly remember the last time that ever happened for me, but um, it's great. But if you could pick a game that your fellow co-hosts haven't played that you would add
Ants And Action Conversion Euros
SPEAKER_00as a fourth game that you like, I really need these guys to play this game to top off your night.
SPEAKER_01Well, I got an easy one here because I have a game. I actually just talked about it on this week's episode that came out yesterday, and my co-hosts have not played it, but I'm really excited to introduce it to them. And it's called Ants. And um, I don't have the designer's name offhand right now, but it's a new game uh by Cranio Creations, and they published a game called Rats of Wistar a few years ago, and they used a kind of very distinct whimsical art style for that game. This is the same artist, and the cards in it look exactly the same. So, in some ways, it feels connected to that game, but it's a very different game. But it got me excited because I liked Rats of Wistar and um and got a chance to play this, and it's a really fantastic engine builder, tableau builder euro with a lot of great interaction on the board. So, yeah, ants, that's my current one that I'm excited to introduce to my co-hosts. I hope they like it. We'll see. I'm I'm I'm pretty sure Chris is gonna like it. I think Adam will be. I'm I'm on the fence. You I never know how a euro is gonna hit with them. It almost never does, but every once in a while I can surprise them. And I think I think this one might work. So that's my that's the one I'm excited about right now.
SPEAKER_03Is this the one where you can like change the type of ant and like what it does over the course of the game? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, it's it's like this. It's like basically you have tokens that represent your ants, and those are kind of the actions that you can take. And so there are three types of ants. You know, every round you're gonna have some, some uh, I think it's explorer ants, forager ants, and digger ants. And you're you're gonna continue to get new ones every round in each of those sections, but there are some actions that will let you change one to a different type to make a particular, you're giving up one type of action to make another action stronger. So you can really play around with that action selection system in a way that feels somewhat thematic as well as just being an interesting tool uh for the game. So yeah, uh it worked great for me. I've I've played it like half a dozen times in the last couple months. So uh unusual amount of repeat plays for something of this weight.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and ant colonies have been ant colonies have been so uh popular lately as a theme.
SPEAKER_00You guys also like the March of the Ants or something. Yeah, I hear you guys talk about that one a lot too.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's that's been a big hit for us. Adam is uh maybe too much of a hit for Adam, he talks about it way too much, but I do like that game a lot too. And it's not because of the ants, like I could care less about ants. I don't know why this, but the somehow, somehow two different people managed to make great games about ants that I got to got to play over the last couple years.
SPEAKER_03And there were two there were two other ones that came out or coming out this year that were highlighted at Gen Con, like as the hot new thing. So I yeah, ants, it's all the rage right now.
SPEAKER_01Ants are the next anthropomorphic animals, I guess.
SPEAKER_03There you go.
SPEAKER_01People are going all in, and then everyone's gonna get tired of them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's this is the way of the board gaming life cycle. That's right.
SPEAKER_03Awesome. Is that that's our last one, right?
SPEAKER_00That's our last one.
SPEAKER_03Are we ready to wrap up game night and then we can go over the fence and talk about what we've been doing outside of board gaming?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I would like to say first, you know, Tim, I think you you you were a good podcast host, and you might be an even better game night host. So thank you for playing along. That was awesome. I joined any of those game nights. That's a heck yeah, good picture.
SPEAKER_01This is a super fun thought experiment for me. So
Over The Fence On AI Fears
SPEAKER_01thanks.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, we appreciate it. Uh Clay, why don't you kick us off? Tim's been doing a lot of talking. Tell me what you have been doing outside of board gaming this week.
SPEAKER_00Okay. I this is tough. I don't want to okay. This is this is gonna be this is gonna we're over the fence, so we're getting real. Um, I've been thinking a lot about AI because you've been seeing all these things come out about AIs escaping their cages or whatever, and collaborating with each other on message boards. It just got me a little stressed out, and on top of that, Travis got me watching Star Trek, the original series from the 60s. And there was an episode, probably like episode six or seven, where uh this doctor scientist was stranded on a planet and made these androids that were smarter than humans, and and like it they would like gotten to these real ethical questions about why would you do this? And it was like from the 60s, and I was like, holy cow, what is happening? Like, I I use AI, but now I'm starting to like question what the impacts of it are for environmentally on the economy on like you know, people are literacy, yeah. These people CEOs are saying it's gonna kill people. So, what do you guys think about AI right now?
SPEAKER_01Can I just say, Clay, that I am so glad you brought this up because I have been extremely stressed out for the last week. And I've got a lot of other things going on in my life, I think, that is impacting it as well. But I in no small part is it the news of every tech executive that is saying within a decade there's a high likelihood that humanity will be wiped out. And that just, I mean, I don't know how you couldn't be terrified of that. And I've asked people, I was like, is this on your mind? Everyone's like, No, don't worry about it. That's the future. Who cares? I'm I'm pretty stressed about it right now. Um, I was telling my wife the other day that it's really interesting how, you know, I think we can talk about sci-fi, which was often created in a way to explore social issues and and kind of like highlight the ethical, you know, challenge that that humanity could face. And sci-fi has always done a great job of calling those out, telling the morals, you know, tell telling the stories, um, talking about the morality of it. And and the problem is that everybody's trying to emulate the exact things that we're that sci-fi is telling us that we should not be doing, and that's that's what's happening here. Um, I don't know. You know, it's it's hard to say. Like the more I dig into this particular concern about AI as far as the risks of it, it's not that AI itself is gonna become sentient and it's not it's not like a Terminator 2 situation, right? What it's actually is that it's so much information available to the average person that more people can do damage with it. They're they're gonna they're gonna have access to information that they couldn't get to before, that they can, you know, create bioweapons or whatever. So in a way, it's not really the AI's fault. It's the fact that as a species, we just I guess are just you know just like not smart enough to survive, even though we've got all the tools to do it. And that's even more scary in a way. Um, I don't know, man. You it's got me stressed out. Thanks for giving me a little bit of a chance to vocalize my own my own fears about it because I really um, you know, I was hoping to I was hoping to have a few years into my retirement before I died, but now it looks like you may not.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, play more board games while you still can.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Uh yes, I've been thinking about that a lot too, and that's like basically all we talked about at school last year. Um and you're right, sci-fi does this thing where it says, what if we advance technology 50 years, 100 years, 200 years, and here are the repercussions that we think and can predict, and here are the moral and ethical quandaries that it brings up for us as a species. And you hear both sides of the argument today about whether AI is good or bad, and it can help us write emails better, but it can also maybe try and drive a car and not do so very well. But like take the AI that lives within your Waymo and your technology that is trying to make ethical decisions. It's like it's like the the trolley problem, right? But you have a computer with their hand on the lever that is going to decide which track this trolley goes down. I think the scarier part is that those that are writing off the threat of AI probably don't much know much about like quantum and where we are going with this, because quantum is like you take an AI and like fold it on top of itself and then like release it into the world, and it like nothing is safe anymore. Like your your bank accounts, your social media, your information, like government information, like none of that is safe anymore. And people are like speeding at breakneck speed towards that quantum cliff with like no brake lines and no guardrails. So um, yeah, that's a stressful thing right now for sure.
SPEAKER_01Maybe like most things, uh, if we can't actually do anything about it, try to ignore it. I think the best thing that I can do right now is stop paying attention to the news. You know, I I've kind of I've kind of taken that stance for the last 10 years or so, and I feel like I'm just gonna lean more and more in on that is stay away from the news, not not I like I don't want to hear about it because I can't, there's nothing I'm personally gonna do about it. So maybe maybe ignorance is bliss.
SPEAKER_00Do you personally use AI in any way to I do, yeah.
SPEAKER_01I I have to for my work. It's a critical, I mean our I'm in software development, uh application development, and um it's it's it's changed our our work, it's changed our world in some really positive ways. Like again, there's a lot of there's a lot of potential benefits for it, there's a lot of potential value for it, uh, but I don't have any control on the guardrails of the risks uh, you know, to humanity, right? Like, so yeah, I do I do use it. Um what I don't really like the use of very much, I mean I I don't appreciate it at least, or I don't see the value is the use of it in artistic spaces. Like, I don't know. I don't I'm not making a moral judgment on anybody else here because I this is just my own stance. Like, I've had a lot of people tell me, wait, so you guys still hand edit your podcast, but AI can just do that. That for you. And I get that, right? And so maybe that's like a boring part of doing a podcast, but I've listened to some of the I've actually been on a couple uh co-hosted on a couple of podcasts that did this. They kind of were like, Oh, yeah, you use use um Riverside. You can just like let AI just clip out all the all the the noise, all the ums afterwards, it'll edit it, it'll put the tracks together, it'll remove crosstalk and all that stuff. And one, it's part of the fun of the creation is to actually get to do that piece of it to make this thing that we're doing. And two, it's like there's sound like crap, like that it doesn't do a good job of finding the comedic beats and finding the time, you know, getting the timing right and stuff like that. So that's just one element, you know. You see, people use it for recreating art, artworks. Um, and I think that that is also like, why did you never want to actually create something? Did you ever want to draw? Did you ever want to paint? Like, that's the fun part of it. Why, you know, like why would I care about creating something that I didn't actually put the time and effort into it, even if mine's crappy? Um, so that's the thing about AI that I think is like it's it's a super powerful and amazing tool with a lot of future risks for sure, a lot of correct risks, a lot of environmental impact. But I don't know, some people are just using it as like uh like hey, yeah, now I can I can do something like everybody else can. Why are you doing that though? There's plenty of great artists. You don't need to you don't need to plug it into a computer and have it produce art off of somebody else's art. So I don't know, a little bit of a rant there, but uh we asked.
SPEAKER_00We asked that's why we just don't edit at all.
SPEAKER_03That's right. If you had any uh confusion about whether or not this podcast was AI, now you know.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, I mean you guys have to you guys have to think about this too. I mean, you're you're both are you in the Air Force? You're both in the Air Force, right? Or yep.
SPEAKER_03Well, okay, Air Force and Space Force.
SPEAKER_01Okay, yeah. So I I'm sure that this is something that is like I mean, with drones, with the intent to use AI in military, I mean, it's gotta be something that's on your mind, just in, you know, like your workforce and and what's ethical and what's and that's where a lot of the boundaries are being pushed, because of course that's you know, that's what the gu that's why governments are are like wanting to have the most powerful, because then they can they can be the ones that have control. And so I don't know, that's gotta be it's gotta be stressful for you guys as well.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I mean, last time we had the argument that like if we don't use X technology, somebody else will use it against us. Yeah, things did not go so well. So um, yeah, yeah, I mean, that's kind of where we're headed, like race to the finish line and worry about it later. So um that was fun. Yeah, that was up and lifting.
SPEAKER_00Sorry, guys. Uh just you asked what was on my mind, uh what I've been thinking about. So there we go.
SPEAKER_03Wow. Okay. Uh is that that's all you got for over the fence?
SPEAKER_00That's all I got. Let's see if anybody's got anything better.
SPEAKER_03Well, I finally finished uh Spring Snow by Yukio Machina Mishima. That was a tough read, and not because
Books On Gladiators And Chicago
SPEAKER_03it's like written difficultly or a long book or anything like that. Um it was just like it's very poetic and beautifully written, but man, it took me forever to get through. It's like my nighttime reading, and he used a lot of flowery languages, language that is translated directly from Japanese to English, and it was it took me a long time to get through that, and I finally did, and I have moved on to Those Who Are About to Die: A Day in the Life of a Roman Gladiator, and it is by Harry Sidebottom, and it's it's good. Um, it talks about like 24 hours before like starting the evening prior to entering the um arena all the way through to if you win and or lose in the arena, and it's based in a lot of research this guy has done. Um and I'm really enjoying it so far. Right now, I'm like still finishing up evening before they'd have this big feast. Um, he kind of quells a lot of the uh assumptions that people have about gladiator life up front. Like you've probably seen this in movies where they're just lopping up, lopping off people's heads left and right. People are dying in the arena all the time. Yes, that happened, but like you were more likely to survive than not. And you had people that were like career gladiators and they were favorites of the crowd, and they were like characters in WWE that would come out and perform, and like they had these scripts that they were fulfilling, and maybe the person on the other end was not so lucky. Uh, but for the most part, people had pretty long careers based on you know their uh popularity with the crowd, and so yeah, it's kind of interesting. I don't know why I even picked this up, but I kind of stuck stood out to be in a bookstore, and I needed something other than like Japanese translation. So I went with this one. It's I'm enjoying it so far.
SPEAKER_01Well, that's a that's a diverse mix of books you've been reading. So first I'm curious, like what why Spring Snow? This is like a 1967 Japanese, uh 69 Japanese uh novel. But what what what inspired you to pick that one up?
SPEAKER_03I don't I honestly don't know. I've been kind of all over the place with my taste lately, and partially because like I sprinted through Dungeon Crawler Carl and I'm like to balance it out, honestly.
SPEAKER_01Like too too much, too much candy, you gotta get some got to get some healthy food in there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like I ate nothing for but like junk food for months on end, and now I'm like, I gotta I gotta cleanse.
SPEAKER_01So uh I hear you, yeah, yeah. I feel I feel the same way about like reading, like I'll read some like you know, trashy novels for a little while, and then I'll be like, okay, it's time to get something that's actually like I'll I'll read a historic, you know, something about history. Was the one in the gladiators? Is that written like a novel just based in his in like historical fact or or research, or what is it written more like a documentary style?
SPEAKER_03It's a little bit of both. Like he'll tell the story and set the scene. Like the first chapter is about the feast that they'll have for the gladiators, and he kind of sets the scene about like these big burly dudes that are like just fat because they are plumped up for the arena, and they're being watched and gawked at by the local Romans that are looking through bars at these guys, and the local Romans who are not about to enter the arena are these skinny, emaciated people looking at these people that are like just giants compared to them, and um he he kind of sets the scene in a more um novel-ish type way, but then he kind of flips the script and goes into like here are the actual facts about what we have learned about life in the arena based on these specific writings from these philosophers or whoever it is at the time. Um, so he he has a good balance in there. But it's it's definitely not strictly a novel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it sounds really cool. I'm actually really interested in picking that up now. I love that kind of um, you know, historical kind of I don't know what it's not it's not a call. I mean I keep wanting to call it a documentary, it's like but whatever, it's you know, his it's history, but uh in any case, I love those when they're interesting and when they tell a story along with uh along with the history that's being shared.
SPEAKER_03Well, if you are if you're into like historical books that read like novels, like historical non-fiction, um I recommend I will always recommend Candice Millard. She is an author that writes books about like previous presidents and specific instances. Um she and Eric Larson are kind of in the same vein where they write very like novel style, but yeah, packed with information that is that is truthful and well researched.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, I love that. I've read several of Eric Larson's books, and I love like The Devil in the White City. I grew up in Chicago, so it's a favorite of mine. I love the history around that. I mean, it one of the cool things about that was always like it's about a serial serial serial serial killer, but it's also about the building of this of this amazing modern city. And I was more entranced with like the decisions on architecture and how skyscrapers were built and and things like that, but fascinating that he kind of wove this this kind of dark, gritty story through it as well. Um, yeah, that's really cool.
SPEAKER_03I am uh civil engineer, and that's exactly why I picked up the book as well. Was like, this is so cool! Like the first floating foundations were ever like built right there. So yeah, and then I you know the chapter, I'm like, there's a serial killer in this book? What I thought it was just the architecture, so yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's funny. I I with just uh my daughter's 14 and she had been there when she was really young, but you know, I grew up there and then she was born in California. So anyway, we were back in Chicago just a few weeks ago, and wanted to I wanted to take her to the Museum of Science and Industry, not only because it was a favorite of mine when I was a kid growing up, but specifically because that building that that museum is in was one of the buildings that was built for the 1893 World Fair. Cool. It's the only remaining structure. Most of them were kind of temporary, but this one was built to be permanent and it's still standing. And uh it's beautiful, impressive piece on the south side of Chicago. That's incredible. All right, so do you guys
Dark Matter And Classic Star Trek
SPEAKER_01want to hear what I've got on the other side of the show? Yes, please.
SPEAKER_00Yes, come over to this side.
SPEAKER_01All right. So I um I've been watching. Have you guys seen the Apple TV show Dark Matter? Um, so this is uh this is a uh show with Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connolly. Jennifer Connolly is one of my longtime favorite actresses. I've just been in love with her since I saw her in Labyrinth when I was about, we're about the same age. So so I was she was like my first crush. Um, but anyway, she's a fantastic actress, but she's in this show, and it it came out a few years ago. The first season did uh Dark Matter, and it is uh based on um it's this kind of a sci-fi show. It's based on a family set in Chicago, actually. And uh the guy is a physics professor, and one night he gets kidnapped coming home from the bar. And it turns out the guy that kidnapped him is actually himself from an alternate reality. So, quick spoiler, this shows up at the very first episode, but kind of sets the stage. Ultimately, his doppelganger was part of a team that created this box that allows people to travel between you know alternate dimensions, you realities essentially. And it leads to some really, really cool uh stories, some really interesting scenarios that happen. The reason I'm bringing it up right now is season two just came out recently, and the episode one of season two was one of the best episodes of television I've ever seen. So if you haven't watched the series at all, I recommend it. It's it's great. But uh getting into season two, there's been some really, really great stuff uh that's surprises uh moments that have happened in it. So I'm I'm loving it. We're like four or five episodes in right now and um caught up for so far, looking forward to the next season, the next episode to drop.
SPEAKER_03Heck yeah. We are kind of in a drought right now uh with our TV shows, besides Ted Lasso, and we're already there on Apple TV. So why not skip over to Dark Matter?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, that's the we're actually bouncing between that and Ted Lasso, and we're keeping up with both both seasons. Yeah, I would I would check it out. I I think you guys you guys would like it from what I've heard about your taste so far.
SPEAKER_03Well, have you watched the uh Star Trek the original series?
SPEAKER_01Because a long time ago, you know, I heard your whole conversation about it a couple episodes back, and uh yeah, so my mom, it's kind of cool. My mom grew up, I mean, she loved it when she was young, and so she introduced it to me when I was a kid in the 80s and watched through the whole series. And in fact, the next generation was our family's like the only television show we ever watched during dinner. That was like our dinner family dinner show from when I was like sixth or seventh grade up until late high school. Uh, watched that whole series. So wow, long time fan of that. I haven't watched any of the new stuff, but uh the old old classic Star Trek, big fan of.
SPEAKER_03Heck yeah. We're trying you you said you mentioned dark matter, and the storyline sounds very much like season one episode of uh Star Trek the original series. Like there's always multiple
Where To Find Board Game Hot Takes
SPEAKER_03kirks or multiple spots, or like someone's not who they seem, and it's a lot of tropes that get played over and over. But man, dark matter sounds awesome. Yeah, let's check that out. Did we do it? I think we did it. It's all I got. Give me one more shout out for where people can find your growing, budding little podcast, board game hot takes. Tell people where they can find you on the internet.
SPEAKER_01Well, basically, um, anywhere that you can find podcasts, just search for board game hot takes, Spotify, you know, Apple Podcasts, wherever. That's the most important thing. We're not big social media people, but I am on Blue Sky, so I do post there regularly. And then we have a really great active Discord channel. And if you find our show on our podcast, it's always in the the link to it, is in the show notes. So great community out there. But honestly, um, hopefully just listen to the show. That's that's the best thing that we do. That I can't speak to the quality of our social media, but our podcast, I'm very proud of.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, easy is good. Yeah, it's it's fine. Uh your guys' podcast is phenomenal, though. It's one of my favorites. I tune in, I try to every week. Um, we sometimes life gets in the way, but I always try and make it up on the back end during my next long trip or something. I'm always have it on the car or uh playing in my headphones while I'm on a plane or what wherever I can get it. So keep up the good work. You guys are awesome. Congratulations on your golden geek award. Keep doing what you're doing because you guys are clearly on a uh path to the moon. So thank you for joining us here on the Operation Game Night Podcast on our lowly little podcast. Uh I have been your host, Travis Smith. He has been my co-host, Clayton Gable. He has been our special guest, Tim from the board game hot takes. Thank you for listening. We are out.
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