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My Top 50 … by Art (part 2) · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Welcome to pick up and deliver the podcast where I
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: pick up my audio recorder as I step out for
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: a walk and deliver an episode two while I stroll around.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: I'm Brendan Riley. Welcome afternoon, listeners. Is a beautiful day
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: here in suburban Chicago. We are in mid January, but
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: it is forty five degrees out. The sun is out,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: and if you've never lived in the Midwest and had
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: an unseasonably warm day, show up, boy howdy is nice.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: If you get a chance for an unseasonably warm day,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: should take it.
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: It's lovely. So I'm out for a stroll.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: I'm going to record a couple episodes and get some
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: steps in while the sun is up and the weather's warm.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Sure it'll be cold again this evening. So I am
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: in the midst of revealing to you my top fifty
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: games of all time. As I mentioned last episode, I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: have arranged my top fifty games of all time in
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: a different configuration. I took the top fifty games and
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: rearrange them by art. So instead of revealing them in
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: the order of my top fifty, I'm revealingum in the
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: order in which I appreciate the art in the games,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: so that's how I'm revealing them. This is the second
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: episode of the ten I'll be recording to reveal my
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: top fifty.
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: We've started a lovely chat over on Board game Geek.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: We've had a couple of folks come in there and
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: start to talk about their top fifty as well, so
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: this would be a great time to hear from more
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of you. If you're out there listening and you want
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: to share, head over to Board game Geek Killed three
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: two sixty nine and look for Top fifty chat a threat.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: I'll be updating the initial post of each one after
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: I do the episodes, so you can see my Top
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: fifty emerging as it does. Or if you want to
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: give a sneak peek, you can always go to my
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: You could root around in my Board game Gee account
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: you can find my Top fifty as it is fully.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: Updated already, but don't do that. That is a spoiler.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: All right.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Into the episode, We're going to talk about five games today,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: starting with the game that's number forty five in art.
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  Speaker 1: This is Messina thirteen forty seven. Messina thirteen thirty seven
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  Speaker 1: is a perfectly serviceable game in terms of the art.
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  Speaker 1: The cover is fine, although not great. The people on
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  Speaker 1: it are drawn a little bit wonky, and it doesn't
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: do much for you, as doesn't the title like this
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  Speaker 1: is very much a game of like it's a city
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  Speaker 1: in a year, it's actually a game about the plague.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: It's a pretty interesting game. However, the more you dig
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: into the art of the game, the less great it is.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: The graphic design I'm really pleased with. I think it
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: is a very functional game. But I think the places
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: where you do have art, the people next to the karts,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the little faces, they're just not They're just not real compelling.
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: They could be better, could be much better. And like
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: I said, the cover art is not great. So Messina
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  Speaker 1: thirteen forty seven is my number forty five pick for art.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: It's also I think it's really good. It is my
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: number forty three game. This is one I haven't played
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: as many times, although it is on Yukata so I
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: have been playing it some. I really like the dual
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: system of tracks that Suhi created when he created this.
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  Speaker 1: Messina has this board in which it represents the people
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  Speaker 1: who are living on your estate during the plague and
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  Speaker 1: how they're helping out around the place. And you have
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  Speaker 1: these pieces that you move through the board that activate
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  Speaker 1: different bonuses, and a big part of the game is
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  Speaker 1: sort of setting up yourself to get these cascading and
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: improving bonuses. As the game goes along, you rescue people
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  Speaker 1: from the city, and then you put them to work
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  Speaker 1: in your estate helping out building things, which lets you
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  Speaker 1: rescue more people, and eventually you can actually rebuild parts
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  Speaker 1: of the town, which works out really nicely. All in all,
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  Speaker 1: I really like the systems at work in Messina. It's
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  Speaker 1: a very interesting game, obviously if it made it into
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  Speaker 1: my top fifty, but.
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  Speaker 2: The art is not super compelling.
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  Speaker 1: Has come out since the last time I did a
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  Speaker 1: Top fifty, so it was not on the list before
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  Speaker 1: and couldn't have been. So number forty three is the
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  Speaker 1: highest it has been and it is where it is
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  Speaker 1: right now.
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  Speaker 2: Next up in my.
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  Speaker 1: Number forty four game in terms of art is Lords
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  Speaker 1: of Water Deep. I again, I think the graphic design
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  Speaker 1: and Lord's water Deep is pretty good. I like the
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  Speaker 1: style of the cards and the tiles. I like the
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  Speaker 1: overall layout of the game, but it is very bland like.
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  Speaker 1: They did not pick dynamic colors. The colors are all
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  Speaker 1: very muted. It feels like they were really trying real
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  Speaker 1: hard to get the feel of an old euro game
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  Speaker 1: because they did not give us any kind of I
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  Speaker 1: don't know, dynamic coloring.
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  Speaker 2: And then on top of it.
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  Speaker 1: Some of the art is fine, and some of the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: art is okay or decent, and some of it is
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  Speaker 1: just really not good. And I'm not a big fan
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  Speaker 1: of the cover art. Like I think the characters are
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: on and are fine, but it feels very old. And
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  Speaker 1: really the game is not brand new, but I feel
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  Speaker 1: like the game feels older than it is. The style
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: leaves a lot to be desired. For me, It's good,
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  Speaker 1: it could be much better. So it's number forty four
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  Speaker 1: for art. In terms of all games of all time,
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  Speaker 1: it's number thirty eight, which does the up to positions
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  Speaker 1: from position forty and twenty twenty two. I had played
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Lords of Water Deep before that, but it was not
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: on my top fifty. This is one of those games
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  Speaker 1: that just gets better every time I play it. It
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  Speaker 1: is a really solid middleweight game where there's plenty to do,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: there's plenty of competition to be had. There's a little
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: bit of take that which I honestly is not my
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: favorite part of it, but there's a lot going on
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  Speaker 1: that makes the game really fun. I did acquire the expansion,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: although I haven't played it yet, and I mean.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: I have played the expansion. I have not played my
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: copy with.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: The expansion yet, but overall, Lords of water Deep it's
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: a really good game if you haven't played. It is
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: a work replacement game, middleweight or even entry weight workerplacement
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: game where you're acquiring cubes which represent warriors or rogues
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: or wizard words or fighters, fighters, rogues, wizards, and clerics,
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  Speaker 1: and then you're sending those out to complete missions for you,
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  Speaker 1: and that's kind of it. You're also building buildings, and
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: that's the part that's still pretty unique, actually is it.
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  Speaker 1: One of the actions you can take is at a
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  Speaker 1: building to water Deep, which itself becomes another action space
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  Speaker 1: that other players can use, and you get a little
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  Speaker 1: bonus if they use your building, which is always an
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  Speaker 1: interesting balance. This is very much a game of like
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I can usually get good stuff, but sometimes I have.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: To let other people get good stuff too.
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  Speaker 1: So Lord's water Deep is very a very good game
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  Speaker 1: and I like it a lot. That's why it's my
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: number thirty eight game of all time. Number forty three Evacuation.
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  Speaker 1: This is again forty three.
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  Speaker 2: In art. I think the cover art on Evacuation is
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: just lovely, but there is almost no other art.
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  Speaker 1: There's a little bit here and there, but generally there's
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: not a lot of art in Evacuation. I think the
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: graphic design is serviceable but not amazing. And so you know,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: we're moving out now of the games where I think
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  Speaker 1: there's something actively bad in the art and moving into
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  Speaker 1: the category of like it's fine, but could be better,
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  Speaker 1: and that's where we are with Evacuation. I feel like
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  Speaker 1: the story of Evacuation is so much more dramatic than
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  Speaker 1: the art tells us, and perhaps that's meant to just
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: have the game not be a bummer because it's so
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: much about like a planet is dying and not everybody's
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: going to make it off. But still it just doesn't.
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  Speaker 1: It feels like it could be more compelling. In terms
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  Speaker 1: of position, Evacuation is number forty nine, so it barely
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  Speaker 1: makes it into my list. I do think this game
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  Speaker 1: has the potential to go higher. I just haven't hand
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  Speaker 1: chance to play it much. It's not available online at all,
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  Speaker 1: and so to play it is to play the physical copy, which,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: as you all know is a highly competitive space to
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: play the physical copy when I have all these other
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: games to play. So in that regard, Evacuation has yet
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  Speaker 1: to make it back to the table. I've just played
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: it the one time, and so it must be pretty
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  Speaker 1: good if it sticks in my memory that strongly that
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: I can put it in my top fifty, even as
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: I've only played it the once. It's a really compelling game,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm excited to see as time goes on and
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: they get to play it more, will it go further
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  Speaker 1: in the ranks.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I hope.
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  Speaker 1: So that's Evacuation, my number forty forty nine game of
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  Speaker 1: all time from Vladimir Suci. And again that one's new
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: because I haven't It didn't exist last time I did
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: a top fifty, all right. My number forty two game
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: in terms of art is Pandemic Legacy. Pandemic Legacy is,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: of course, and in this I am a little bit
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: including all pandemic games here, or at least all the
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Pandemic Legacy games. I really like Pandemic Legacy. I think
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: it's extremely compelling. I think it suffers for me in
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: terms of my rankings. It's suffering from not having any
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: more chapters. We've played Pandemic Legacy, we played season two,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: we played season zero. As far as I know, they're
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: not planning on bringing out anymore, and that is hurting.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: That's hurting its ranking for me. You know, I recall
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: it being really good, and it is. You know, if
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: you were going to make me make a list of
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: the best Legacy games, I think Pandemic Legacy would be
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: at the top of that list. I think it is incredible,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: But over time, as I get further and further away
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: from it, it loses some of its status as my favorite.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: So yeah, I don't know. We'll see how it goes.
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: It is number It is number nineteen in my estimation
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: right now, it's down twelve spots. It was number seven
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two, and twenty seventeen it was as
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: high as number three. So the art itself is fine,
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: but it's very workmanlike in terms of it. It shows
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: what is being illustrated. The most compelling art is the
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: art on the cover of the box, which is great.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: It has this sort of futuristic, dynamic TV Show twenty
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  Speaker 1: four type feel to it, but again that only the
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: cover only gets you so far in the game.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: My self.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: The graphic design is evocative and interesting, but it's very
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: functional and not particularly artistically dramatic. So from that regard,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: I put Pandemic Legacy at number forty two in my
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: arrangement of art, but it's number nineteen in my top
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: fifty games of all time. Finally, the last game I
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: want to talk about today is Praga could put Regni.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: This is my forty first game, number forty one in
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: terms of art, and it is my number twenty three
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: game of all time in terms of my categorization. Praga
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: is a really interesting action selection game. You have this
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: cool wheel that's got these little action tokens on it,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: and each one you can pick one side of the
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: token to do, and then you also pick one of
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: the bonuses that's next to the token, and you can
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: resolve them in any order. This is as with many
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Vladimir Sushi games, it is a game of cascading bonuses.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Early in the game, it feels like you're not getting
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: much done, but as the game goes along, you get
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: more and more bonuses available to you as you are
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: accumulating the right combination of accelerators and point scoring engines.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: There's a track that you can move up. There's a
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: couple tracks. There's a two different production tracks which also
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: give you bonuses. There are two scoring tracks that you
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: can move up, and they're actually multi dimensional scoring tracks,
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: so you can move horizontically and vertically on these tracks
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: and they give you different things. I said, horizontically, horizontally
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: and vertically on these tracks and they give you different bonuses.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: And then there are a variety of different other ways
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: you can build things, and there's a road you can
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: move along that you have to spend eggs to move along.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: It's a whole deal. Like I said, I find it
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: really compelling. It's interesting every time. It's number forty one
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: in art for a lot of the same reasons that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Evacuation is number forty three.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: The cover, actually, I think the cover in Evacuation is
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: a little better than the cover in Praga, But the.
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: In Praga is really nice, Like I like the layout
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: of the city and the way that it displays all
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: the stuff. It's really busy, so it's kind of an
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: intimidating looking board if you haven't played the game before.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: There's a lot to learn to read. But it's a
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: really neat setup and something that I enjoy every time.
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  Speaker 1: More importantly, the way that the bonuses string together. The
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: reason that's my number twenty three game is the reason
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: the bonuses string together, and the reason the ways that
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: the game puts all of these different pieces into play
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: and rewards you for mixing them in clever ways. I
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: think is really fun. It is the epitome of efficiency,
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: puzzle point salad, and in that regard, I think it's
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: well worth a play if you get a chance to
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: play it. That is, Praga could put Regni from Vladimir Suki.
• 12:50
  Speaker 2: It is new to my.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: Top fifty, of course it is because it was did
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: not exist last time I did one, and it's number
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: twenty three in my Top fifty.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Well, that brings me to the end.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Of this episode of my Top fifty countdown numbers forty
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: five through forty one. Thank you for joining me on
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: my walk today.
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: I hope that your next block this is plost Minds
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: good Bye. Brought to you by rattle Box