Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Look Back at 2013

Transcript

Look Back at 2013 · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:00
  Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver: the podcast where
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  I pick up my audio recorder as I step out for a walk and deliver an episode to you while
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  I stroll around.
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  I'm Brendan Riley.
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  [Music]
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  Welcome! Morning, listeners.
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  It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago.
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  I'm out for a stroll and hoping it doesn't rain.
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  I have an umbrella with me just in case.
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  It's in the high fifties but it feels like the low fifties.
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  I hope I'm not going to get too chilly on the walk today.
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  As I came out I saw we have some neighborhood ducks who have built a nest nearby and they
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  come by and have some of the food that falls out of our bird feeder when the other birds
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  are feeding.
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  So it's kind of fun to have these local ducks come hang out.
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  The lady duck quacked at me when I came out the door and I said 'sorry' and went on my way.
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  She was giving me the stink eye as I walked away though
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  so I should be more careful about that.
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  Well I was looking back and I realized that it's been almost 25 episodes since I did one of
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  these and I'm enjoying the progress on them.
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  So today I'm going to do another look back to the best games.
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  For those of you who are relatively new to the podcast, I, each year I do a best games
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  of the last year episode although I'm always a year behind.
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  So if you go back to January or February I did a best games of 2022 episode.
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  I won't do a best games of 2023 episode until the beginning of 2025 because I like to give
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  myself an extra year to try the different games.
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  I don't know how the reviewers do it.
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  I guess people who like are actively reviewing and getting review copies and whatnot they have
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  the ability to do a best games of right away when the year is over but I don't.
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  So I like to give it a year to percolate and I've been doing that since 2019 I think but
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  I realized that every year before 2019 also has games I've played and I haven't ever
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  talked about them in that perspective.
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  So what I've been doing is going back and looking up games by the year they were published
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  in boardgamegeek and writing down all of the games that I've played from that year and
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  then doing a bit of a best games award show of those games.
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  So today I'm going to do best games of 2013.
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  To start with I always pick out the games that have been in my top 50 previously and exclude
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  those from our conversation.
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  Obviously if they're in my top 50 there if they were ever in my top 50 their games I think
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  are pretty good and if they're currently in my top 50 they would go at the top of the
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  list so it doesn't seem it just seems a silly to include those.
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  I don't have any games from 2013 in my current top 50 but I do have two games that have been
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  in my top 50 before both of these were in 2017 and 2019 in my top 50.
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  A study in Emerald was number two in 2017 and number 30 in 2019 and Euphoria build a better dystopia
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  was number 26 in 2017 and number 24 in 2019.
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  So I'd exclude both those games from this list although they were published in 2013 and
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  are both great games.
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  So I'll start with my top five.
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  These are my favorite games from 2013 that haven't been in my top 50 before and I'll
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  count backwards.
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  Number five is Tosh Kalar.
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  This is an abstract game from Vlaada Chvatil which has a really interesting card play and
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  it requires a lot of spatial thinking that I find very satisfying.
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  It's a really fun game to play in person but I also enjoyed playing it online.
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  I played it on board game arena from time to time.
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  I am not very good at it but I really enjoy it.
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  There is something very satisfying about it.
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  That said it is incredibly head to head and most of the time you make progress by undoing
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  the progress someone else your opponent has made.
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  So it's not gentle at all but really good.
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  That's Tash-Kalar, the arena of legends.
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  The downside and I did get rid of it eventually just because I don't play it that often at
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  home and they can't have everything.
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  The big downside to it is it is incredibly abstract.
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  There's cool art on the cards but the game itself is just these pieces with little swords
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  on them and little antlers and stuff.
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  So it's not, it's very abstracted and I'm generally not going to play that many kinds
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  of games like that although this is a fun one.
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  Number four is Kings of Air and Steam.
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  This might be a familiarity breeds love kind of situation.
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  This is the game I played a lot when it was on my top 50.
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  I like the art style.
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  It's got a kind of quirky art style.
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  It's from Designer Scott Almes.
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  It is a pickup and deliver game where you're flying around in blimps and you're trying
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  to maximize your efficiency.
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  Now it does have a downside in that it is pretty samey but that means that you can try to
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  get like really good at anticipating what your opponent is going to do.
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  There is some really interesting efficiency choices about do you upgrade your blimp or
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  do you upgrade your delivery system?
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  And it's just a pretty enjoyable pickup and deliver game.
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  One of my favorites from that genre and that's why it's on my list.
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  Kings of the Air and Steam.
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  It also plays 8 pretty well which is unusual for a game like that.
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  It does take a little longer at 8 than it does at 4 but not dramatically longer because
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  the game all involves planning and so you plan what you're doing all at the same time
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  and then when you execute your plans you do them bit by bit.
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  That's great.
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  Next up is Sushi Go.
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  My number 3, this is from Phil Walker Harding and I think Gamewright is the publisher.
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  Sushi Go is a must have introductory game.
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  It is a demonstration of the drafting mechanism, the pick and pass game.
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  It actually calls itself the pick and pass game.
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  Players get a hand of cards, they pick a card they want to keep, they pass the rest to
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  the next player and so on.
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  You play three rounds.
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  It's very accessible, really easy to play, also really fun.
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  I understand the gold standard for that game now is Sushi Go party which I don't have but
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  I've been playing online a little bit and I can see why.
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  It has more variety so you get a little bit more out of it.
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  If there's one thing regular Sushi Go suffers from, it's pretty samey.
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  Since it's got the same cards in it every time you fall into these habits which get disrupted
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  if you're playing Sushi Go party where there's a bunch of different kinds of Sushi and
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  you don't use the same ones in every game.
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  So if you haven't played Sushi Go, I recommend it, especially if you can get a hold of the
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  party edition.
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  My number two game from 2013 is Castle Dice.
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  This is published by the now defunct or retired or closed up publisher Fun to Eleven Games.
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  It has a huge pile of dice that come in the box and it is a dice allocation game where
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  you are building up your castle and doing your best to game points by building things.
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  As a game by itself in its initial version is pretty good but then they released a expansion
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  for it that gives each player a little bit of their personalization and I think that makes
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  the game significantly better.
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  So if you get a chance to try Castle Dice with the siblings expansion, it's really good.
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  The game comes with a big pile of dice.
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  One of the things I like about it is that it is pretty unique is each game you are going
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  to pick which dice you put in.
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  There is a certain automatic set and then you get to choose some.
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  And what's fun is you rolled the dice and everyone takes turns drawing from the large pool
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  that everyone has made.
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  So somebody might choose to put in a couple of gold dice and then let's say all but one
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  of the dice come up not gold to come up with other things.
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  So there is only one dice that has gold.
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  Then someone else might take that gold dice even though you are the one who put it in.
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  That is kind of amusing.
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  But it makes for a really interesting play.
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  So that is Castle Dice really worth checking out if you can find it anywhere.
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  I also really liked it.
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  This game was in production or in kickstarting when Hurricane Sandy hit New York and the
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  designers published some really nice things about that and
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  donated some money to Hurricane Sandy.
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  Finally my top game from 2013 that isn't a study in Emerald or euphoria is Concordia.
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  Concordia is a game I played a lot of times online and only a few times in person actually only
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  once in person I think.
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  But I really like it.
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  It's a very compelling game in which you are managing a network of trading resources and
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  you're trying to maximize your points.
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  You buy these cards and the cards let you do things but the cards also become scoring
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  multipliers.
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  It's a really effective system and is really fun.
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  I'm sad I used to play it on Boiteajeux and that website has shut down and as far as I know
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  that's the only place you could play it so I haven't played Concordia in a while and I
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  miss it.
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  It's a really good game and I would love to play it some more.
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  I'm not sure if it's a game I'd play on the tabletop all that much just because it's
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  hard to get a hold of or hard to get to the table but it's really great.
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  And if you get a chance to play Concordia I recommend.
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  So those are my top five games from 2013.
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  I'm going to buzz through a few honorable mentions.
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  Other games that I like from 2013 for various reasons are honorable mentions and then some
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  superlatives.
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  So the honorable mentions are other games that almost made my top five.
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  These are in no particular order in Glass Road, the Uwe Rosenberg game.
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  This one probably deserves to be in the top five but I've only played it once.
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  I liked it but I didn't play it enough to really grasp it.
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  So honorable mentions it goes.
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  Russian Railroads is really interesting but really fun online.
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  I'm not sure I'd want to play it in person.
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  There's a lot of math to do on that one.
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  So that is like the epitome of the tracks on tracks game.
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  It is just tracks.
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  Forbidden Desert, for my money one of the best co-ops ever made.
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  I really love the way that the desert sands flow around in that game and if you get a chance
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  to play it you definitely should.
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  It's great.
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  Gravwell is an excellent little sort of predict your opponent game where you're trying to
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  decide when to play specific cards in order to maximize your points and you're trying
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  to read your opponents because it's all about, did your card trigger before theirs and if
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  so you go flying forward.
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  If not maybe you go flying backward.
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  It's a really interesting push pull mechanism in it that's well worth a chance.
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  They did a second edition that's pretty snazzy.
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  It has some nice ships.
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  That's from Renegade Games I believe.
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  If you can get a hold of Gravwell or try it out you definitely should.
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  Then finally SOS Titanic.
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  I got this as a, I got the German language copy of the original game.
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  It was out of print for a very long time.
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  Sadly it came back in print but it was from the gaming goat publisher, TGG publishers and
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  the owner of that company is pretty toxic and I think that the game itself got overshadowed
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  by the recent publication.
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  The Art on it looked really nice.
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  I did not buy a copy though because I already had a copy.
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  In SOS Titanic it's basically a sort of gamified version of Klondike solitaire and your goal
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  is to get as many passengers off the ship as you can but you have to respect their social
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  standing, the rich people don't want to go in the ship with the poors so that's weird
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  but makes for a really interesting version of Klondike solitaire.
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  I played in multiplayer it's fun but it's much better just as a solo game.
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  That's SOS Titanic the last of my honorable mentions.
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  Again those are not in any particular order.
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  Next I have a couple superlatives.
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  These are games that are from 2013.
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  They did not make my best list or honorable mentions but I think they deserve a nod.
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  The first of these is Ladies and Gentlemen as best satire.
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  Ladies and Gentlemen is a really weird goofy game about acting out Victorian roles.
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  The players are divided up into married pairs and one player plays the gentleman who is
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  going to go to the stock market and try to make money in the stock market and it's this ridiculous
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  luck game.
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  The other player is going to play the lady and they are going to go to shops and try to
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  buy the best dress or best outfit for the ball that they can.
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  There is an interesting element where the husbands and the wives aren't allowed to communicate
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  about money.
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  All it is is the wife presents the husband with the things she's picked out to buy and
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  the husband decides whether or not to buy them or can put them on hold or just say no
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  we can't afford that.
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  It's a weird game.
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  It's very funny the art is cute and we had a good time when we played it but it really
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  can only bear a couple plays with the same group.
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  It's a game that's amusing for its discovery not for its longevity.
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  So if you had chance to play ladies and gentlemen it's worth it just to see the kind of the
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  way that a game might make satire.
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  Next up we have Best Push Your Luck Game of 2013.
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  This is Welcome to the Dungeon.
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  Welcome to Dungeon is nice little bluffing game where all the players are sitting around
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  there.
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  The characters boasting, fantasy characters boasting about how well you do fighting
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  away through a dungeon and so they take turns boasting all I could get further than you
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  until everybody has said no I can't do it and then the person who still said they could
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  has to successfully navigate the dungeon and get a point or if they fail to successfully
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  navigate the dungeon they lose a point and either you win if you've gained two points
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  or lose two points or you know gain two points or gain two damage.
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  You win or lose and the game goes until somebody wins.
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  So that's Welcome to the Dungeon I think Antoine Bauza is our designer there.
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  Next up this operative is a game I would likely enjoy more than I actually do.
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  This is a game where I really like the theme of the game but the I don't know if it was
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  the play of it or if it's just what it was when I finally got to play it I thought it
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  was just fine.
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  It's probably a matter that it was innovative in 2013 but at this point it is no longer
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  innovative it the things that are in it have been done in other games and so when I played
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  it it felt like just another euro.
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  I mean it's got a great theme which is that you're building your dress maker making dresses
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  for an elaborate ball and you get points for where those dresses end up in the courtyard
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  and so on.
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  I will say I played the revised version released by Eagle Gryphon Games a few years ago with
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  the Ian O'Toole art.
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  It was beautiful.
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  I'm really enjoyed my play of it but I feel like I should have enjoyed it more than
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  I did which is why I got that award.
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  Next up is a cool weird game.
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  This is the Agents.
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  The Agents is an independent card game that has a really neat push pull mechanism in which
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  you can you're manipulating your opponents on either side of you and trying to get points.
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  The art is really nice and it was one of the first kicksters I participated in that was
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  like fully independent and it turned out really great.
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  I like the game a lot.
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  I haven't played it in a while but it's due for a revision or a return.
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  That's the Agents.
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  Next up is the best storytelling game.
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  This is the quiet year.
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  This is an indie storytelling game in which players have a map and a deck of cards and
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  each player is going to flip over a card and something will happen and you draw on the
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  map and basically it's about a post-apocalyptic civilization where you have 52 weeks, hence
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  52 cards and at the end of that time something happens, the bad guys come or whatever.
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  You end of the quiet year.
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  That's a really interesting game that tells a really interesting story and I encourage you
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  to play it if you get a chance.
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  It's a lot of fun.
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  It's a very much a storytelling game kind of an indie thing rather than a board game
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  with a winner and a loser.
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  Finally the best party game with 2013, clearly two rooms and a boom.
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  This is a game that I enjoy playing but I almost more enjoy running.
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  I really enjoy watching people play two rooms in a boom trying to figure out who's winning
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  and how they're going to win and I run it quite regularly in my classes in different
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  when I have an excuse to do so and it's a lot of fun.
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  Two rooms and a boom is a great game as you can get a hold of it.
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  Unfortunately it's been out of print for a while, I don't understand why they don't reprint
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  it, I'm sure it would sell very well but nobody asked me.
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  I have two games that popped up in the 2013 that are definitely on my to play list.
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  I actually have more than that, I have several games that are in my collection that are
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  on my to be played list but the main two that I felt bad that I hadn't played are Bora Bora
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  and Freedom the Underground Railroad.
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  These are both important games.
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  Freedom is more important than Bora bora.
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  It's just an interesting stuff and a failed game but they're both games I would like to
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  have played and I think my survey of 2013 games would be better if I had done so.
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  So finally I just wanted to read to you quickly the list of other 2013 games that I have played
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  that did not make any other awards just so you get a sense of the context I'm in.
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  I would love it if you head over to boardgamegeek guild 3269 and let me know other 2013
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  games that you think I should have played or you think I should play or you think would
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  be on this list.
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  I'd love to hear from you.
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  Okay so here are the other 2013 games that I've played but did not make it on to those other
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  lists.
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  Impulse that's Carl Chudyk, Caverna, that's Uwe Rosenberg, Eldritch Horror I believe
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  that is Corey Kenetska but I'm not sure on that one.
• 17:33
  Bruges that's Stefan Feld, Spyrium I don't know who designed that. Concept.
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  Terror in Meeple City is Antoine Bausa, Eight Minute Empire Legends is Ryan Lawket,
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  Blueprints, Boss Monster, FunEmployed, City of Remnants, Carnival Zombie,
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  Bioshock Infinite The Siege of Columbia, Council of Verona, Bomb Squad, Dread Curse, Pocket Imperium,
• 17:59
  Quarantine, Superfight, Pelican Bay and Risk: Plants versus Zombies.
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  So I'm keen to hear what other 2013 games you think I should play.
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  I already said that but I'm saying it again.
• 18:11
  Over to Board Game Geek Guild 3269, let me know.
• 18:14
  You can send me a message on Board Game Geek.
• 18:16
  My username there is wombat929
• 18:18
  I'd love to hear from you.
• 18:19
  Until next time, thanks for joining me.
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  I hope you're next walk is as pleasant as mine was
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  Bye bye.
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  [Music]
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  Where's your other duck?
• 18:55
  Where's your other duck?
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  Huh?
• 18:57
  Are you guys taking turns watching the nest now?
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  [Music]
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