Latest / Pick Up and Deliver / Top of the Stack, April 2025

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Top of the Stack, April 2025 · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:00
  Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I step
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  off the train and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.
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  I'm Brendan Riley.
• 0:15
  Well, greetings, listener.
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  It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago, and by lovely, I mean, kind of overcast and
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  a little chilly.
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  So maybe _lovely_ isn't the right word, but there it is.
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  It is, however, April 1st, which means it's April Fool's Day.
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  Now, I won't have this episode out for you today.
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  I don't have time to publish it when I get home, but I will have it for you first thing tomorrow
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  morning on April 2nd.
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  And that's because it's the beginning of the month, which means this time for Top of the
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  Stack. [silly airhorn noises]
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  For those of you new to the podcast, top of the stack is a episode format in which I
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  talk about the games that I played last month and make plans for the games I'm going to
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  play next month.
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  It's a lot of fun, and it's just a sort of summary episode.
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  There's a lot of stats.
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  And yeah, you get a chance to see what I've been playing and to talk about it a little
• 1:14
  bit here and there.
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  So if you are also... if you also kind of keep track of what you play or you just want to
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  share what have you been playing lately, the top of the stack episode is often the one
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  where people will, who listen to the podcast, will go to our guild 3269 over on board game
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  geek and post in a thread where they talk about what have they been playing and how has
• 1:33
  it been developing.
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  If you're thinking about doing that: do it.
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  It's fun to chat with you.
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  All right, so let's jump in.
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  First some general stats, game plays.
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  I played 60 different games this month and I logged 78 total plays.
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  So I had a little bit more.
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  Of course, it's not one to one.
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  I had some games I played multiple times.
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  It pushes me up for the year.
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  I'm at 121 plays of 227.
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  I'm sorry, 227 plays of 121 different games.
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  I keep track of my stats over on board game geek in a geek list that's linked from my profile.
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  It's also linked from the show notes for this episode.
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  So you can always go check that out over there.
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  First up is I always am trying to reduce my shelf of opportunity, which is a list of games
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  that I haven't played yet going into the month.
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  My shelf of opportunity is at 69.
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  It's a very productive month.
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  I am down to 63.
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  So really churning that engine.
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  Although it might be 65, you'll have to go check the stats on the website because I did
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  pick up two games at Goodwill that I don't know if I've added to that list yet or not.
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  So it might be 65.
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  My collection size has not shrunk.
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  It was at 620 last month and while I do have a bunch of games I'm planning to get rid of,
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  I haven't actually gotten rid of them yet.
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  So collection is the same size, maybe even a little bigger.
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  Each month I pick four games that I'm going to try to play in the month.
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  If I can play three of them, then I count it as a successful month.
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  The goal is to play a 36 selected games over the course of the year.
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  As far as I've played two in January and three in February, so I'm doing okay.
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  But how did I do in March?
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  The four games I picked were Resafa, the new Vladimir Suchy game.
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  Clue the office, Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars, and Carpe Diem.
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  And I'm pleased to mention that I got to play all four games.
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  That's right.
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  Four for four or four out of three.
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  Which means that I'm actually on track for my 36.
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  I was missing one and now I've gotten a bonus.
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  So by the end at the end of quarter one, I'm at nine games played out of nine needed for
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  success.
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  Hazah!
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  I did play a number of games for the first time this month.
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  Of course I talk about these in detail in board game espresso episodes, but I do like to share
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  which games I've played.
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  Those are Glyphics, Kemet, Hunted: Wode Ridge, Apothecary: Plague Doctors, Sherlock Holmes
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  and the Baker Street Irregulars, Clue the office, Resafa, Buildzi, Galactic Renaissance,
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  Minotaur, Lords, Android infiltration, and Rolemodels: the Battle for Vyk' Turnaal.
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  Which brings me up to...
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  I was at 19 new games for the year coming into the month.
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  I'm now at 31 new to be games played this year.
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  I tried one expansion this month.
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  This was the next ink and clues mystery ink and clues the organ harvester.
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  I also got to dust off a number of games this month.
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  I dusted off cryptid.
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  It was two years five months and ten days dusty.
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  Elder sign which was one year four months and seventeen days dusty.
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  Sidereal confluence which was two years zero months and twenty seven days dusty.
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  Patchwork which was one year seven months and twelve days dusty.
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  Thunderbirds which is five years six months and eight days dusty and chocolate factory
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  which was one year eight months and six days dusty.
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  That's twenty games dusted off this year.
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  In case you missed it, Thunderbirds is the oldest or the dustiest game at five years six months
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  and eight days.
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  So I played that one or two previous times both in like 2019 or 2020 and I haven't played
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  it since.
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  As you know I'm trying to play all of my top 50 games on the table in the next two years
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  so by the time then I go to make my next top 50 in some time early 2027 I want to have played
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  all 50 of my top 50 games.
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  Coming into the month I had played nine of them and I managed to play three more.
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  I played Carpe Diem which is number 42.
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  I played Sidereal confluence which is number 50 and I played London which is number 17.
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  So that is a delight to be making progress on that list.
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  Oh I also played Barenpark which is number 40.
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  So I've played now 13 of my top 50 games on the table so making good progress there.
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  I guess I need to play like two a month to keep up and at 13 I've played on average almost
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  more than four a month.
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  That's good because some of the ones on there are hard to get to the table so later on the
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  pace is going to slow down.
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  Speaking of keeping a good pace I've made a lot of progress on my 10 for 10 list so far
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  so I thought I would share those as well as a reminder a normal 10 for 10 list is a situation
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  where you pick 10 games and you try to play them each 10 times in a year.
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  What I've done instead is I pick 10 categories and I have to play 10 games that fit that category.
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  Some of the categories are particularly weird as well so I will share how I am participating
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  in those.
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  First up I have hold on.
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  Oh I have 32 new games I forgot to record that I played try bond.
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  Tri-bond is a trivia game that I got to try recently and I forgot to include that in
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  my new games list so that is there now.
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  The first category is RoyGBivBBW so the rainbow and then brown, black and white and
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  what this is is a game fits that category if the main color on the game box is that color.
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  If it is pretty clear it has one predominant color on there then it counts for that play.
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  I had two this month Tri-Bond which is a violet violet color and a hunted: Wode Ridge which
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  is mostly black so I have now done six of the 10 plays there.
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  In the five continents regime the idea is that most of the games I have take place in
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  North America or Europe or they aren't set in a geographic place on earth at all.
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  The idea of the five continents is to actively play games that take place in other parts of
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  the world and I am doing it by continent so actively playing games that take place in the
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  five other continents other than North America and Europe.
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  Along those lines I played one game that takes place in Africa this is Rassafa which takes
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  place in modern day Syria and I played The Gardens which takes place in Oceania specifically
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  Sydney so I have played two.
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  I will note Rasafa being played for the five continents cannot be used for any of the
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  other categories.
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  As I think I've mentioned before each play of a game allows you to put one mark off one
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  play in here so any play that I use for one thing I can't use for the other.
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  But said I do also allow myself to double up for one category which is two categories
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  for now so I think I'm under a minute.
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  I did not play any games that have magic theme this month.
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  Mystery theme I did have some progress though I played Inc and Clues the organ harvester I mentioned
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  that already and I played Sherlock Holmes and the Baker Street regulars so those two games
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  are both mystery themed games and we are up to six plays in that genre.
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  Next up I have a category that's a meta category so I have I want to have five games that
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  reached five plays on the table and this is the one place where I am allowed to double
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  dip plays that count as part of these five could also have been used for other meeples
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  or other entries in the category but so if I've played five games in physical form that
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  does not count digital plays I can log it here and we've now got two.
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  We came in the month with zero but we've now we've played Frost Haven twice and Error
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  five times and Skyjo five times so that is two games that have met that requirement.
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  Coming into the month I had one game that I had played that had been on my shelf of opportunity
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  since before 2021 and I now have a second game and this is Android infiltration so that
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  puts us that too.
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  I also had two games played that had been on my shelf of opportunity since before 2024
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  and I'm now up to seven so I made a lot of progress there.
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  That would be Kemet, Hunted Wood Ridge, Sherlock Holmes Baker Street Irregulars, Clue the
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  office and Rolemodels: the Battle for Vyk' Turnahl.
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  So those five games bought me to seven in that category meaning I'm almost done as putting
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  effort into which games I'm going to get played from my shelf of opportunity.
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  I did not make any progress on the alphabet games this month.
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  Each month I tried a set a painting goal, no progress on the painting goal.
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  As I said I am at 63 unplayed games on my shelf of opportunity.
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  I did have a slight shift in the shelf of opportunity.
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  Up till now I've had listed as an unplayed game Core Worlds: Galactic Orders.
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  It turns out Core Worlds: Galactic Orders is an expansion.
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  I had bought it used.
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  It's an expansion but it's an expansion and the person who sold it to me the base game
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  was in there as well.
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  So I've reordered the collection a little bit and say I marked that I own Core Worlds now
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  which I did not before and then that I own the expansion Core Worlds: Galactic Orders.
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  I have not played either of them so.
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  Along those lines that means I marked three games that I've added this month which puts
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  me at 622 or 623 I can't tell from my display.
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  Well that brings me to the final question on any top of the stack update which is what
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  games am I going to play in April?
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  So for my stack I am going to name Hollywood 1947 as a game I definitely want to get played
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  in April.
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  This is a game I anticipate to enjoy but haven't actually played yet and we're going to be
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  playing it in my board game class in two weeks.
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  So I need to play it so that I know what it is and know how it works.
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  I need to pick two other games or three other games that I would like to play.
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  I think it would be interesting to try to play Ponzi Scheme this month since it's tax
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  a month and that's a money related game so maybe I will use that game or introduce that
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  game as something I could play.
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  So I'll put Ponzi scheme as our second goal.
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  Hollywood 1947 Ponzi scheme for my top 50 list.
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  I think the hunger would be fun to play.
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  I haven't played that in a few months.
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  And it is in my top 50 so getting it played.
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  Or else glory to Rome.
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  I think I'll say glory to Rome actually.
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  So I'll put glory to Rome in there as my top 50 choice and then let's say space freaks
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  as my final choice.
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  This is a game that I've often wanted to play but I think I could suggest that my son
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  and I give it a try when we have a few minutes and it would be one that he would enjoy
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  at least trying out.
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  So those are my four that I'm going to play.
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  Well, what have you been playing this month?
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  Head over to board game geek guild 3269 and share your plays over there.
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  I'd love to hear them.
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  In the meantime, I hope that if you get a chance to get out and take a walk around,
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  that your next walk.
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  is as pleasant as mine was.
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  Bye bye.
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  [MUSIC]
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  [BLANK_AUDIO]
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  [MUSIC]